Phosphorus-diffused silicon solar cell emitters with plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposited silicon carbide

We propose the use of annealed phosphorus doped amorphous silicon carbide layers (a-SiC:H(n)) deposited by PECVD as emitters in solar cells and explore the effect of the annealing time on the emitter saturation current density (Joe). We use the quasy-steady state photoconductance method to determine the dependence of effective lifetime on excess carrier density and from these measurements we obtain Joe values in the range of 300 fA cm−2 for sheet resistances around 100 Ω⧸sq. Finally, we obtain effective surface recombination velocity values around 104 cm s−1 by fitting the measured Joe values with PC1D simulated ones.