Plasma Texturing Processes and a Si:H Surface Passivation on c Si Wafers for Photovoltaic Applications

Abstract

In this work, we report the formation of pyramidlike structures on crystalline silicon (cSi) substrates using plasmatexturing processes, and also, we present optimized process conditions for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon in order to passivate low cost CZ cSi wafers. A relatively high effective lifetime of minority carriers was measured on nontextured wafers. Our results demonstrate that plasmatexturing processes can produce similar results or even better than wettexturing processes. Finally, combined plasma texturing and passivation at low temperature is a promising approach for the fabrication of low cost heterojunction solar cells in CZ cSi substrates.