Impacts of nano-structures in p- and i-layer on the performances of amorphous silicon solar cells

Abstract

Fine-grained nano-structures were introduced in p- and i-layers of n-i-p type hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) based solar cells deposited on stainless steel substrate, and their impacts on the cell performances were characterized. It is found that the hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) p-layer with a certain nanocrystalline volume fraction leads to a higher V oc of 1.042 V. For the intrinsic layer, introducing a middle-range ordered-like structure and a small amount of nanosized silicon crystallites may decrease the light-induced degradation and increase the stabilized efficiency of n-i-p a-Si:H based solar cells up to 10% for single junction nano-structured a-Si:H solar cells with an area of 0.25 cm 2 , AM1.5, 100 mW/cm 2 . (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)