Download or read book Impact of Dopant Compensation on the Electrical Properties of Silicon for Solar Cells Applications written by Fiacre Emile Rougieux and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis aims at understanding the mechanisms limiting the efficiency of compensated silicon solar cells (containing boron and phosphorus in the bulk). Such dopant compensation is common in solar grade materials, especially in silicon from the metallurgical route, and can potentially lead to a degradation of the materials electronic properties. We experimentally show that a thermal oxidation can create an n-type layer at the surface of compensated p-type silicon. This n-type layer is further shown to interfere with device performance and material characterization. We investigate the impact of compensation on the minority carrier lifetime, in particular for recombination through defects. Metastable defects such as chromium-boron pairs and the boron-oxygen defect are shown to degrade the lifetime of compensated n-type silicon. The boron-oxygen defect in compensated n-type silicon is then experimentally investigated. It is shown that if not mitigated, the boron-oxygen defect leads to a strong reduction in implied VOC. The defect is also shown to be fundamentally different in compensated n-type silicon compared to p-type silicon. Its concentration does not depend on the net doping and its recombination activity is dominated by a shallow defect rather than a deep defect. Through a theoretical investigation, we show that the carrier mobility is also affected by compensation. Both theory and experiments confirm that the mobility is reduced by the combined presence of acceptors and donors. Compensation not only increases the amount of ionized impurities and decreases the amount of free carriers, it also affects the scattering cross section of ionized impurities and free carriers. Theoretical calculations show a relatively weak influence of the compensating impurities on the mobility. However experimental results suggest a stronger influence of compensating impurities. This results in mobilities slightly lower than predicted by advanced model such as Klaassen's model. A new method to measure the sum of the majority and minority carrier mobility in silicon is introduced. Measurement of the influence of dopant density, injected carriers and temperature on the mobility sum are made and compared to data available in the literature. -- provided by Candidate.
Download or read book Compensation Engineering for Silicon Solar Cells written by Maxime Forster and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis focuses on the effects of dopant compensation on the electrical properties of crystalline silicon relevant to the operation of solar cells. We show that the control of the net dopant density, which is essential to the fabrication of high-efficiency solar cells, is very challenging in ingots crystallized with silicon feedstock containing both boron and phosphorus such as upgraded metallurgical-grade silicon. This is because of the strong segregation of phosphorus which induces large net dopant density variations along directionally solidified silicon crystals. To overcome this issue, we propose to use gallium co-doping during crystallization, and demonstrate its potential to control the net dopant density along p-type and n-type silicon ingots grown with silicon containing boron and phosphorus. The characteristics of the resulting highly-compensated material are identified to be: a strong impact of incomplete ionization of dopants on the majority carrier density, an important reduction of the mobility compared to theoretical models and a recombination lifetime which is determined by the net dopant density and dominated after long-term illumination by the boron-oxygen recombination centre. To allow accurate modelling of upgraded-metallurgical silicon solar cells, we propose a parameterization of these fundamental properties of compensated silicon. We study the light-induced lifetime degradation in p-type and n-type Si with a wide range of dopant concentrations and compensation levels and show that the boron-oxygen defect is a grown-in complex involving substitutional boron and is rendered electrically active upon injection of carriers through a charge-driven reconfiguration of the defect. Finally, we apply gallium co-doping to the crystallization of upgraded-metallurgical silicon and demonstrate that it allows to significantly increase the tolerance to phosphorus without compromising neither the ingot yield nor the solar cells performance before light-induced degradation.
Download or read book Advanced Silicon Materials for Photovoltaic Applications written by Sergio Pizzini and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2012-06-07 with total page 412 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, the silicon feedstock for photovoltaic cells comes from processes which were originally developed for the microelectronic industry. It covers almost 90% of the photovoltaic market, with mass production volume at least one order of magnitude larger than those devoted to microelectronics. However, it is hard to imagine that this kind of feedstock (extremely pure but heavily penalized by its high energy cost) could remain the only source of silicon for a photovoltaic market which is in continuous expansion, and which has a cumulative growth rate in excess of 30% in the last few years. Even though reports suggest that the silicon share will slowly decrease in the next twenty years, finding a way to manufacture a specific solar grade feedstock in large quantities, at a low cost while maintaining the quality needed, still remains a crucial issue. Thin film and quantum confinement-based silicon cells might be a complementary solution. Advanced Silicon Materials for Photovoltaic Applications has been designed to describe the full potentialities of silicon as a multipurpose material and covers: Physical, chemical and structural properties of silicon Production routes including the promise of low cost feedstock for PV applications Defect engineering and the role of impurities and defects Characterization techniques, and advanced analytical techniques for metallic and non-metallic impurities Thin film silicon and thin film solar cells Innovative quantum effects, and 3rd generation solar cells With contributions from internationally recognized authorities, this book gives a comprehensive analysis of the state-of-the-art of process technologies and material properties, essential for anyone interested in the application and development of photovoltaics.
Download or read book Handbook of Silicon Photonics written by Laurent Vivien and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 831 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The development of integrated silicon photonic circuits has recently been driven by the Internet and the push for high bandwidth as well as the need to reduce power dissipation induced by high data-rate signal transmission. To reach these goals, efficient passive and active silicon photonic devices, including waveguide, modulators, photodetectors,
Download or read book Handbook of Photovoltaic Silicon written by Deren Yang and published by Springer. This book was released on 2019-11-28 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The utilization of sun light is one of the hottest topics in sustainable energy research. To efficiently convert sun power into a reliable energy – electricity – for consumption and storage, silicon and its derivatives have been widely studied and applied in solar cell systems. This handbook covers the photovoltaics of silicon materials and devices, providing a comprehensive summary of the state of the art of photovoltaic silicon sciences and technologies. This work is divided into various areas including but not limited to fundamental principles, design methodologies, wafering techniques/fabrications, characterizations, applications, current research trends and challenges. It offers the most updated and self-explanatory reference to all levels of students and acts as a quick reference to the experts from the fields of chemistry, material science, physics, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, solar energy, etc..
Download or read book Energy Research Abstracts written by and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 616 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book ERDA Energy Research Abstracts written by United States. Energy Research and Development Administration and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 906 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book ERDA Energy Research Abstracts written by United States. Energy Research and Development Administration. Technical Information Center and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 982 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Characterization and Fundamental Investigation of Laser Doping for Silicon Solar Cells written by Lujia Xu and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Advanced structures with localized contacts can enable high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells, but they are complex and costly to fabricate using conventional techniques. Hence, the development of new, cheaper processes to produce localized contact regions is of great interest. One of the most promising processes is laser doping. This thesis explores three main areas related to the challenges of laser doping, in particular the characterization of the laser-doped regions, the degradation of the silicon/dielectric interface in the vicinity of the laser-doped regions, and the degradation of the laser processed silicon. A technique named secondary electron microscopy dopant contrast imaging (SEMDCI) is firstly introduced for the characterisation of the cross-section/top-surface of laser-doped samples. This technique can be used for a large range of different dopant sources and different laser doping methods. The technique can be employed to obtain quantitative dopant density images for p-type laser-doped regions, albeit currently over a limited range of dopant densities and with relatively large error. Using this technique, the risk of metallization shunts near the edges of dielectric film windows opened by the laser can be evaluated. Furthermore, this technique is useful for understanding the interaction between different materials during the laser doping process. The impact of the silicon nitride layer thickness in silicon dioxide / silicon nitride stacks on the properties of laser-doped lines is investigated through measurement of the doping profile near the edge of the dielectric window which is an important factor in determining the likelihood of high recombination or even shunting from the subsequent metallization process. Fundamentally, a problem of exposed and undoped silicon near the dielectric window is identified for most of the investigated parameter range. However, optimization of the laser parameters and dielectric film conditions is shown to be capable of preventing or at least minimizing this problem. Beside this problem, the residual dielectrics close to the edge might be degraded after laser process. Therefore, experimental methods are proposed to detect this possible degradation. In the last part of the thesis, boron diffused samples capped with different dielectric films (including bare surfaces) are processed using laser pulses and characterized by photoluminescence imaging (PL) to study the degradation of the electronic properties of the processed regions. In this way, without the interference of a dopant precursor, the thermal and dielectric effects are separately investigated. It is found that the thermal effects do not lead to significant damage and additional recombination, provided no severe silicon evaporation occurs. However, when a dielectric film is present, a considerable increase in recombination is observed irrespective of laser parameters. The magnitude of the increase in recombination varies substantially depending on the dielectric used. It is demonstrated that both sufficient silicon melting and low recombination can in principle be achieved, particularly using long pulse durations and small pulse distances. In addition, nitrogen gas annealing after laser process was proved to be an effective way to reduce the defects induced by both the thermal effects and dielectrics.
Download or read book SERI Photovoltaic Advanced Research and Development Bibliography 1982 1985 written by and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Scientific and Technical Aerospace Reports written by and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 1572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Solar Energy written by Christoph Richter and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-11-29 with total page 744 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gathering some 30 entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, this book presents fundamental principles and technologies for sustainably harnessing solar energy. Covers photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar radiation and more.
Download or read book Lifetime Spectroscopy written by Stefan Rein and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2005-11-25 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lifetime spectroscopy is one of the most sensitive diagnostic tools for the identification and analysis of impurities in semiconductors. Since it is based on the recombination process, it provides insight into precisely those defects that are relevant to semiconductor devices such as solar cells. This book introduces a transparent modeling procedure that allows a detailed theoretical evaluation of the spectroscopic potential of the different lifetime spectroscopic techniques. The various theoretical predictions are verified experimentally with the context of a comprehensive study on different metal impurities. The quality and consistency of the spectroscopic results, as explained here, confirms the excellent performance of lifetime spectroscopy.
Download or read book Thin Film Solar Cells written by Jef Poortmans and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2006-10-16 with total page 504 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thin-film solar cells are either emerging or about to emerge from the research laboratory to become commercially available devices finding practical various applications. Currently no textbook outlining the basic theoretical background, methods of fabrication and applications currently exist. Thus, this book aims to present for the first time an in-depth overview of this topic covering a broad range of thin-film solar cell technologies including both organic and inorganic materials, presented in a systematic fashion, by the scientific leaders in the respective domains. It covers a broad range of related topics, from physical principles to design, fabrication, characterization, and applications of novel photovoltaic devices.
Download or read book Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells written by W.R. Fahrner and published by Trans Tech Publications Ltd. This book was released on 2006-08-15 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world of today must face up to two contradictory energy problems: on the one hand, there is the sharply growing consumer demand in countries such as China and India. On the other hand, natural resources are dwindling. Moreover, many of those countries which still possess substantial gas and oil supplies are politically unstable. As a result, renewable natural energy sources have received great attention. Among these, solar-cell technology is one of the most promising candidates. However, there still remains the problem of the manufacturing costs of such cells. Many attempts have been made to reduce the production costs of conventional solar cells (manufactured from monocrystalline silicon using diffusion methods) by instead using cheaper grades of silicon, and simpler pn-junction fabrication. That is the hero of this book; the heterojunction solar cell.
Download or read book Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy MOVPE written by Stuart Irvine and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-10-07 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Systematically discusses the growth method, material properties, and applications for key semiconductor materials MOVPE is a chemical vapor deposition technique that produces single or polycrystalline thin films. As one of the key epitaxial growth technologies, it produces layers that form the basis of many optoelectronic components including mobile phone components (GaAs), semiconductor lasers and LEDs (III-Vs, nitrides), optical communications (oxides), infrared detectors, photovoltaics (II-IV materials), etc. Featuring contributions by an international group of academics and industrialists, this book looks at the fundamentals of MOVPE and the key areas of equipment/safety, precursor chemicals, and growth monitoring. It covers the most important materials from III-V and II-VI compounds to quantum dots and nanowires, including sulfides and selenides and oxides/ceramics. Sections in every chapter of Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE): Growth, Materials Properties and Applications cover the growth of the particular materials system, the properties of the resultant material, and its applications. The book offers information on arsenides, phosphides, and antimonides; nitrides; lattice-mismatched growth; CdTe, MCT (mercury cadmium telluride); ZnO and related materials; equipment and safety; and more. It also offers a chapter that looks at the future of the technique. Covers, in order, the growth method, material properties, and applications for each material Includes chapters on the fundamentals of MOVPE and the key areas of equipment/safety, precursor chemicals, and growth monitoring Looks at important materials such as III-V and II-VI compounds, quantum dots, and nanowires Provides topical and wide-ranging coverage from well-known authors in the field Part of the Materials for Electronic and Optoelectronic Applications series Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE): Growth, Materials Properties and Applications is an excellent book for graduate students, researchers in academia and industry, as well as specialist courses at undergraduate/postgraduate level in the area of epitaxial growth (MOVPE/ MOCVD/ MBE).
Download or read book Solar Cells and Modules written by Arvind Shah and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-07-16 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book gives a comprehensive introduction to the field of photovoltaic (PV) solar cells and modules. In thirteen chapters, it addresses a wide range of topics including the spectrum of light received by PV devices, the basic functioning of a solar cell, and the physical factors limiting the efficiency of solar cells. It places particular emphasis on crystalline silicon solar cells and modules, which constitute today more than 90 % of all modules sold worldwide. Describing in great detail both the manufacturing process and resulting module performance, the book also touches on the newest developments in this sector, such as Tunnel Oxide Passivated Contact (TOPCON) and heterojunction modules, while dedicating a major chapter to general questions of module design and fabrication. Overall, it presents the essential theoretical and practical concepts of PV solar cells and modules in an easy-to-understand manner and discusses current challenges facing the global research and development community.
