18% efficient intrinsically passivated laser‐processed silicon solar cells

It is demonstrated that single‐crystal silicon solar cells with efficiencies greater than 18% AM1.5 can be fabricated by glow discharge implantation and pulsed excimer laser annealing. A unique characteristic of these cells is that the surfaces are passivated intrinsically to give open circuit voltages as high as 640 mV without high‐temperature oxidation. The simplicity of the processing is emphasized and the prospects for raising the efficiencies to even higher values are discussed.