Improvement in electrical and photovoltaic properties of a-Si/c-Si heterojunction with slanted nano-columnar amorphous silicon thin films for photovoltaic applications

• We report the growth and characterization of Flat a-Si and Slanted nanocolumnar a-Si thin films.
• The structure and surface properties of SnC a-Si thin films are determined.
• The effect of nanocolumnar structure on the optical and wettability properties of a-Si thin films has been determined.
• We determine the electrical and photovoltaic properties of both the heterojunctions for solar cell devices.

The flat a-Si and slanted nanocolumnar (S-nC) a-Si thin films were prepared on c-Si and corning glass substrates by e-beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) technique. The structural properties of all the grown thin films were determined by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis and Raman spectroscopy. Surface and cross-sectional morphology of a-Si/c-Si and S-nC a-Si/c-Si heterojunctions were investigated by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM). Sculptured thin films demonstrate potential for significant nanoscale applications in the area of thin film technology. The electrical and photovoltaic properties of these heterojunctions have been investigated by means of dc current–voltage (I–V) measurements at room temperature in dark and light conditions. The S-nC STFs' performance has been found to be improvable on changing the morphology of the thin film. We have found that, the porous morphology of this structure improves the photosensitivity features in photovoltaic devices and solar cell technology. We gained a high open voltage value, such as 900 mV in S-nC a-Si/c-Si thin film, without any doping process.

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