PROJECT TITLE:

Post-deposition treatment of microcrystalline silicon solar cells for improved performance on rough superstrates

ABSTRACT:

In this contribution, we have a tendency to investigate the impact of post-deposition treatments on finished non-encapsulated skinny-film microcrystalline silicon solar cells and show that annealing in vacuum results in improved electrical properties of the solar cells, notably for cells deposited on rough superstrates. Our results suggest that each curing of intrinsic defects within the silicon, which will seem during the deposition of the ZnO back electrode, along with an improvement of the ZnO back-electrode conductivity itself, occur during an annealing in vacuum, resulting in giant enhancements of the open-circuit voltage and fill factor values. An improvement of the porous zones within the absorber layer, as induced by rough superstrates, is also observed by Fourier-rework photocurrent spectroscopy, implying that these porous zones cannot be considered as being purely bi-dimensional, but have a spatial extension among the absorber layer.