Aluminium alloyed iron-silicide/silicon solar cells: A simple approach for low cost environmental-friendly photovoltaic technology

摘要

This work demonstrates the fabrication of silicide/silicon based solar cell towards the development of low cost and environmental friendly photovoltaic technology. A heterostructure solar cells using metallic alpha phase ( α -phase) aluminum alloyed iron silicide (FeSi(Al)) on n -type silicon is fabricated with an efficiency of 0.8%. The fabricated device has an open circuit voltage and fill-factor of 240?mV and 60%, respectively. Performance of the device was improved by about 7 fold to 5.1% through the interface engineering. The α -phase FeSi(Al)/silicon solar cell devices have promising photovoltaic characteristic with an open circuit voltage, short-circuit current and a fill factor (FF) of 425?mV, 18.5?mA/cm2, and 64%, respectively. The significant improvement of α- phase FeSi(Al)/ n -Si solar cells is due to the formation p+?n homojunction through the formation of re-grown crystalline silicon layer (~5–10 nm) at the silicide/silicon interface. Thickness of the regrown silicon layer is crucial for the silicide/silicon based photovoltaic devices. Performance of the α- FeSi(Al)/ n -Si solar cells significantly depends on the thickness of α- FeSi(Al) layer and process temperature during the device fabrication. This study will open up new opportunities for the Si based photovoltaic technology using a simple, sustainable, and los cost method.