Effects of seed layer on the performance of microcrystalline silicon germanium solar cells

Using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition （PECVD） at 13.56 MHz, a seed layer is fabricated at the initial growth stage of the hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon germanium （μc-Sil-x Gex ：H） i-layer. The effects of seeding processes on the growth ofμc-Sil-xGex ：H i-layers and the performance ofμc-Si 1-xGex ：H p-i- n single junction solar cells are investigated. By applying this seeding method, the μc-Sil-xGex ：H solar cell shows a significant improvement in short circuit current density （Jsc） and fill factor （FF） with an acceptable performance of blue response as a μc-Si：H solar cell even when the Ge content x increases up to 0.3. Finally, an improved efficiency of 7.05% is achieved for the μc-Si0.7Ge0.3 ：H solar cell.