High efficiency microcrystalline silicon solar cells with Hot-Wire CVD buffer layer

Microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cells with i-layers deposited by hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) exhibit higher open circuit voltage and fill factor than the cells with i-layers deposited by plasma enhanced (PE)-CVD. Inserting an intrinsic μc-Si:H p/i buffer layer prepared by HWCVD into PECVD cells nearly eliminates these differences. The influence of buffer layer properties on the performance of μc-Si:H solar cells was investigated. Using such buffer layers allows to apply high deposition rate processes for the μc-Si:H i-layer material yielding a high efficiency of 10.3% for a single junction μc-Si:H solar cell.