Fabrication of high growth rate solar-cell-quality μc-Si:H thin films by VHF-PECVD

Several series of Si:H films were fabricated by the very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (VHF-PECVD) at different substrate temperatures (T_s) and silane concentration (SC=SiH_4/SiH_4+H_2%). The results of Raman spectroscopy showed structural evolution of the Si:H films with the variation of T_s and SC. The results of x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements indicated that T_s also influences the crystal orientation of the Si:H films. The modulation effect of T_s on crystalline volume fraction (X_c) is more evident for the high SC, which shows different trend compared to low SC. In addition, the growth rate of the films also showed a regular change with the variation of SC and T_s. Different samples in the series showed a similar increase in dark conductivity and a decrease in photosensitivity with increasing T_s and decreasing SC. Device-quality microcrystalline silicon materials were deposited at a high growth rate, characterized by relatively low dark conductivity and relatively high photosensitivity in a certain crystalline range. The microcrystalline silicon solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 4.55% has been prepared by VHF-PECVD.