Front buried metallic contacts and thin porous silicon combination for efficient polycrystalline silicon solar cells

We investigate the impacts of achieving buried grid metallic contacts (BGMC), with and without application of a front porous silicon (PS) layer, on the photovoltaic properties of polycrystalline silicon (pc-Si) solar cells. A grooving method based on Chemical Vapor Etching (CVE) was used to perform buried grid contacts on the emitter of pc-Si solar cells. After realizing the n+/p junction using a phosphorus diffusion source, BGMCs were realized using the screen printing technique. We found that the buried metallic contacts improve the short circuit current from 16 mA/cm2 (for reference cell without buried contacts) to about 19 mA/cm2. After application of a front PS layer on the n+ emitter, we observe an enhancement of the short circuit current from 19 to 24 mA/cm2 with a decrease of the reflectivity by about 40% of its initial value. The dark I-V characteristics of the pc-Si cells with PS-based emitter show an important reduction of the reverse current together with an improvement of the rectifying behaviour. Spectral response measurements performed at a wavelength range of 400-1100 nm showed a significant increase in the quantum efficiency, particularly at shorter wavelength (400-650 nm). These results indicate that the BGMCs improve the carrier collection and that the PS layer acts as an antireflective coating that reduces reflection losses and passivates the front surface. This low cost and simple technology based on the CVE technique could enable preparing efficient polycrystalline silicon solar cells.