Silicon is the most extensively studied semiconductor mainly owing to its wide applicability in the photovoltaic solar cell industry.However the qualily of Si photovoltaic cells depends on the purity of the material and on the grain structure of the ingot from which the wafers are cutting.The electrical performance of such materials,i.e.mainly their minority carrier lifetime,is closely related to metal impurities present in the feedstock or introduced during crystal growth.These impurities strongly interact with existing crystal defects to form complexes,accumulate at dislocations or grain boundaries in different forms,or even form silieide precipitates,which simultaneously contain several metal impurities.In such a context,it is necessary to control the segregation of impurities especially metallic in the grown ingot in order to optimize the cell properties as a function of the raw material purity.A new Bridgman set-up is developed in order to study the crystallization of photovoltaic Si under independently controlled solidification parameters growth rate,thermal gradient,purity and convection.Convection,either natural or forced,plays a very important role during the crystallization.Its intensity and flow pattern affect heat and mass transfer and,consequently,macrostructure and segregation in a solidified ingot.Here the convection can be controlled by a travelling magnetic field in order to homogenize or segregate the rejected impurities such as metallic elements.The effects of the magnetic field intensity and frequency on the segregation and crystalline structure will be presented.
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