Efficient silicon solar cells with dopant-free asymmetric heterocontacts

James Bullock, Mark Hettick, Jonas Geissbühler, Alison J. Ong, Thomas Allen, Carolin M. Sutter-Fella, Teresa Chen, Hiroki Ota, Ethan W. Schaler, Stefaan De Wolf, Christophe Ballif, Andrés Cuevas and Ali Javey ()
Additional contact information
James Bullock: University of California
Mark Hettick: University of California
Jonas Geissbühler: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Micro Engineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronic Laboratory (PVLab)
Alison J. Ong: University of California
Thomas Allen: Research School of Engineering, The Australian National University (ANU)
Carolin M. Sutter-Fella: University of California
Teresa Chen: The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Hiroki Ota: University of California
Ethan W. Schaler: University of California
Stefaan De Wolf: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Micro Engineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronic Laboratory (PVLab)
Christophe Ballif: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Micro Engineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronic Laboratory (PVLab)
Andrés Cuevas: Research School of Engineering, The Australian National University (ANU)
Ali Javey: University of California

Nature Energy, 2016, vol. 1, issue 3, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract A salient characteristic of solar cells is their ability to subject photo-generated electrons and holes to pathways of asymmetrical conductivity—‘assisting’ them towards their respective contacts. All commercially available crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells achieve this by making use of doping in either near-surface regions or overlying silicon-based films. Despite being commonplace, this approach is hindered by several optoelectronic losses and technological limitations specific to doped silicon. A progressive approach to circumvent these issues involves the replacement of doped-silicon contacts with alternative materials which can also form ‘carrier-selective’ interfaces on c-Si. Here we successfully develop and implement dopant-free electron and hole carrier-selective heterocontacts using alkali metal fluorides and metal oxides, respectively, in combination with passivating intrinsic amorphous silicon interlayers, resulting in power conversion efficiencies approaching 20%. Furthermore, the simplified architectures inherent to this approach allow cell fabrication in only seven low-temperature (≤200 ∘C), lithography-free steps. This is a marked improvement on conventional doped-silicon high-efficiency processes, and highlights potential improvements on both sides of the cost-to-performance ratio for c-Si photovoltaics.

Date: 2016
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DOI: 10.1038/nenergy.2015.31

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