A novel hydrogen-reduced P-type amorphous silicon oxide buffer layer for highly efficient amorphous silicon thin film solar cells

Abstract

We propose a novel hydrogen-reduced p-type amorphous silicon oxide buffer layer between TiO2 antireflection layer and p-type silicon window layer of silicon thin film solar cells. This new buffer layer can protect underlying the TiO2 by suppressing hydrogen plasma, which could be made by excluding H2 gas introduction during plasma deposition. Amorphous silicon oxide thin film solar cells with employing the new buffer layer exhibited better conversion efficiency (8.10 %) compared with the standard cell (7.88 %) without the buffer layer. This new buffer layer can be processed in the same p-chamber with in-situ mode before depositing main p-type amorphous silicon oxide window layer. Comparing with state-of-the-art buffer layer of AZO/p-nc-SiOx:H, our new buffer layer can be processed with cost-effective, much simple process based on similar device performances. © The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers.