A comparative study on different textured surfaces passivated with amorphous silicon

In this work it is studied the influence of different texturizations on minority carrier lifetime of n-type Fz silicon wafers passivated with thin amorphous silicon layers (a-Si:H). For amorphous-crystalline silicon based heterojunction solar cells a good light trapping is essential. Therefore a front side texturization is needed as it can increase the photocurrent due to its low reflectance. The interface between the amorphous emitter and the crystalline base plays an important role for two reasons: firstly, the micromorphic surface topology can generate different deposition regimes that results in different lifetimes, and secondly, the nanomorphic structure also show influences on the lifetime. We compare two different types of wet chemical texturizations by different carbonate solutions and a plasma texturization subsequently covered by a thin layer of a-Si:H by means of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The surface morphology produced by the texturization on the silicon wafers is analyzed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The quality of the passivation of the textured silicon surface by the a-Si:H deposition is evaluated by measuring minority carrier lifetimes with a microwave photo-conductance decay and quasi steady state photo-conductance devices.