Title
The silicon/zinc oxide interface in amorphous silicon-based thin-film solar cells: Understanding an empirically optimized contact
Date Issued
08 July 2013
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Gerlach D.
Wilks R.
Wippler D.
Wimmer M.
Lozac'H M.
Félix R.
Mück A.
Meier M.
Ueda S.
Yoshikawa H.
Gorgoi M.
Lips K.
Sumiya M.
Hüpkes J.
Kobayashi K.
Bär M.
Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie GmbH
Abstract
The electronic structure of the interface between the boron-doped oxygenated amorphous silicon "window layer" (a-SiOx:H(B)) and aluminum-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) was investigated using hard x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and compared to that of the boron-doped microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H(B))/ZnO:Al interface. The corresponding valence band offsets have been determined to be (-2.87 ± 0.27) eV and (-3.37 ± 0.27) eV, respectively. A lower tunnel junction barrier height at the μc-Si:H(B)/ZnO:Al interface compared to that at the a-SiO x:H(B)/ZnO:Al interface is found and linked to the higher device performances in cells where a μc-Si:H(B) buffer between the a-Si:H p-i-n absorber stack and the ZnO:Al contact is employed. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.
Volume
103
Issue
2
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Física de partículas, Campos de la Física
Ingeniería de materiales
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84880496477
Source
Applied Physics Letters
ISSN of the container
00036951
Sponsor(s)
This work was supported in part by the Helmholtz-Association (VH-NG-423) and the German Federal Ministry of the Environment (BMU, Contract Nos. 0327693 and 0325299). The HAXPES measurements at SPring-8 were performed under the approval of NIMS Beamline Station (Proposal Nos. 2011A4609 and 2012B4610). S.U. would like to thank HiSOR, Hiroshima University and JAEA/SPring-8 for the development of HAXPES at BL15XU of SPring-8.
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
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