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Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Patterning of Interdigitated Back Contact Heterojunction Silicon Solar Cells

Careful control of the laser patterning for the fabrication of an interdigitated back contact heterojunction (IBC-HJ) solar cell is needed to avoid laser-induced defects and heat-induced crystallization, which can produce higher carrier recombination and lower power conversion efficiency. The result...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of photovoltaics 2020-11, Vol.10 (6), p.1648-1656
Main Authors: Sinha, Arpan, Soman, Anishkumar, Das, Ujjwal, Hegedus, Steven, Gupta, Mool C.
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Careful control of the laser patterning for the fabrication of an interdigitated back contact heterojunction (IBC-HJ) solar cell is needed to avoid laser-induced defects and heat-induced crystallization, which can produce higher carrier recombination and lower power conversion efficiency. The results of nanosecond laser patterning of an IBC-HJ test structure are reported, and it was shown that optimized laser ablation conditions using a sacrificial layer eliminates laser-induced damage of the underlying passivation layer. A rigorous set of characterizations, comprising of minority carrier lifetime, spatially resolved μ-photoluminescence, optical microscopy, ellipsometry, Essential Macleod program simulations, scanning electron microscopy, line-mapping energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy, were undertaken to provide a deeper understanding of the nanosecond laser processing under a wide range of laser fluence. The evolving changes in surface morphologies of top sacrificial a-Si and SiN x and the use of color chart simulation for ablation-depth analysis were investigated. The μ-photoluminescence, carrier lifetime, and crystallinity in the passivation layer were evaluated. The trend in the change in the surface chemical constituency was determined in terms of Si/N ratio. Finally, the minimum laser fluence for the IBC-HJ test structure was determined and a negligible change in the implied open-circuit voltage was demonstrated.
ISSN:2156-3381
2156-3403
DOI:10.1109/JPHOTOV.2020.3026907