• Roczen, M.; Malguth, E.; Schade, M.; Schöpke, A.; Laades, A.; Blech, M.; Gref, O.; Barthel, T.; Töfflinger, J.A.; Schmidt, M.; Leipner, H.S.; Korte, L.; Rech, B.: Comparison of growth methods for Si/SiO2 nanostructures as nanodot hetero-emitters for photovoltaic applications. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 358 (2012), p. 2253-2256

10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2011.11.024

Abstract:
Two different growth mechanisms are compared for the fabrication of Si/SiO2 nanostructures on crystalline silicon (c-Si) to be used as hetero-emitter in high-efficiency solar cells: (1) The decomposition of substoichiometric amorphous SiOx (a-SiOx) films with 0bxb1.3 and (2) the dewetting of thin amorphous silicon (a-Si) layers. The grown layers are investigated with regard to their structural properties, their passivation quality for c-Si wafer substrates and their electrical properties in order to evaluate their suitability as a nanodot heteroemitter. While by layer decomposition, no passivating nanodots could be formed, the dewetting process allows fabricating nanodot passivation layers at temperatures as low as 600 °C. The series resistance through Ag/[Si-nanodots in SiO2]/c-Si/Al structures for dewetting is similar to nanostructured silicon rich SiOx films. Still, a nanodot hetero-emitter which exhibits both a satisfying passivation of the substrate and induces a high band bending by doping at the same time could not be fabricated yet.