Silicon Surface and Heterojunction Interface Passivation Studies by Lifetime Measurements: Preprint

We report two investigations conducted by using photoconductivity decay lifetime measurement. The first is crystalline silicon (c-Si) surface passivation using quinhydrone/methanol (QM) for bulk minority-carrier lifetime measurement. QM shows great promise as a substitute for iodine-based solutions because of its superior stability and minimized surface-recombination velocity in silicon. The second is interface passivation in an amorphous silicon (a-Si)/c-Si heterojunction structure as a parallel effort to develop and optimize heterojunction c-Si solar cells by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD). A thin buffer layer inserted between the a-Si and the c-Si substrate has been found to be much more effective than a directly deposited a-Si/c-Si interface in reducing the interface recombination velocity.