Highly textured silicon [111] crystalline thin-film on buffered soda-lime glass by e-beam evaporation

•Highly textured silicon [111] thin-film on ordinary soda-lime glass.•Highly textured MgO [111] buffer layer on soda-lime glass.•No secondary annealing step.•Capability for high rate depositions without breaking vacuum.•Highly cost effective process for solar cell manufacturing.

A highly textured silicon [111] crystalline continuous thin-film film has been deposited on an MgO buffered soda lime glass substrate from an aluminum-silicon (Al-Si) eutectic melt using the conventional e-beam deposition. The silicon film growth was accomplished heteroepitaxially on the MgO buffered soda lime glass substrate. The resulting highly oriented crystalline film was then characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy for the detection of Si crystallization, as well as scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The low temperature Si crystallization method presented here requires no secondary annealing step and has the capability for high rate depositions without breaking vacuum. Furthermore, this method has the theoretical feasibility to induce single crystalline growth on the glass substrate, subsequently translating to a highly cost effective process with the potential to play a major role in the adoption of thin film silicon solar technology.