Double-Barrier Quantum-Well Structure: An Innovative Universal Approach for Passivation Contact for Heterojunction Solar Cells
- Authors
- Khokhar, M.Q.[Khokhar, M.Q.]; Yousuf, H.[Yousuf, H.]; Qamar, Hussain S.[Qamar, Hussain S.]; Kim, Y.[Kim, Y.]; Pandey, R.K.[Pandey, R.K.]; Cho, E.-C.[Cho, E.-C.]; Yi, J.[Yi, J.]
- Issue Date
- 13-Feb-2023
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society
- Keywords
- 2D quantum well structure; c-Si solar cells; carrier-selective contact; passivation properties; silicon heterojunction
- Citation
- ACS Applied Energy Materials, v.6, no.3, pp.1368 - 1377
- Indexed
- SCIE
SCOPUS
- Journal Title
- ACS Applied Energy Materials
- Volume
- 6
- Number
- 3
- Start Page
- 1368
- End Page
- 1377
- URI
- https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/skku/handle/2021.sw.skku/103365
- DOI
- 10.1021/acsaem.2c03220
- ISSN
- 2574-0962
- Abstract
- The main drawbacks of modern solar-cell technologies are low-quality surface passivation, recombination losses, and carrier selectivity, which limit their efficiency. Therefore, this study proposes an innovative universal approach for a double-barrier two-dimensional (2D) quantum well (QW) passivation structure for solar cells. To this end, c-Si solar cells were examined as model cells. Preliminary investigations (e.g., contact resistance, passivation, and recombination current density) were conducted with a stack of SiOx/nc-Si/SiOx QW on n-type surfaces, and excellent results were obtained with a 30 nm-thick nc-SiOx(n) carrier-selective layer. Furthermore, the effects of different QW thicknesses and doping doses on the surface passivation of such contacts were studied, and the best results were achieved for a 5 nm QW. These QWs also exhibited a low degree of dopant diffusion, which was suppressed by the double SiOx layer. Furthermore, the 2D QW passivation structure with carrier-selective layers, which was denoted as a heterojunction with quantum well (HQW) solar cell, exhibited an excellent passivation improvement and had a lifetime (τeff) of 2746 μs and an implied open-circuit voltage (iVoc) of 736 mV for a 5 nm 2D QW structure. Moreover, a fabricated 5 nm 2D QW-based silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell exhibited an open-circuit voltage (Voc) of 732.5 mV, a short-circuit current density (Jsc) of 39.5 mA/cm2, a fill factor (FF) of 77.95%, and an efficiency (Eff) of 22.55%. To validate these findings, theoretical calculations were performed using the experimental results, which confirmed the resonance tunneling of charge carriers across the 5 nm HWQ structure. © 2023 American Chemical Society.
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