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Advances in the Characterization of Compositionally-Graded Layers in Amorphous Semiconductor Solar Cells by Real Time Spectroellipsometry

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Abstract

We have developed a real time spectroellipsometry data analysis procedure that allows us to characterize compositionally-graded amorphous semiconductor alloy thin films prepared by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). As an example, we have applied the analysis to obtain the depth-profile of the optical gap and alloy composition with ≤15 Å resolution for a hydrogenated amorphous silicon-carbon alloy (a-Si1-xCx:H) film prepared by continuously varying the gas flow ratio z=[CH4]/{[CH4]+[SiH4]} in the PECVD process. The graded layer has been incorporated at the p/i interface of widegap a-Si1-xCx:H (x~0.05) p-i-n solar cells, and consistent improvements in open-circuit voltage have been demonstrated. The importance of the graded-layer characterization is the ability to relate improvements in device performance directly to the physical properties of the interface layer, rather to the deposition parameters with which they were prepared.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this research was provided by NREL under Subcontract No. XAN-4-13318-03, NSF under Grant No. DMR-9217169, and by NEDO (Japan).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    R. W. Collins & Sangbo Kim

  2. Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    R. W. Collins, Sangbo Kim, Joohyun Koh, J. S. Burnham, Ing-Shin Chen & C. R. Wronski

  3. Department of Electrical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Lihong Jiao, Ing-Shin Chen & C. R. Wronski

Authors
  1. R. W. Collins
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  2. Sangbo Kim
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  3. Joohyun Koh
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  4. J. S. Burnham
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  5. Lihong Jiao
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  6. Ing-Shin Chen
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  7. C. R. Wronski
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Collins, R.W., Kim, S., Koh, J. et al. Advances in the Characterization of Compositionally-Graded Layers in Amorphous Semiconductor Solar Cells by Real Time Spectroellipsometry. MRS Online Proceedings Library 420, 443–448 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1557/PROC-420-443

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