Aluminium alloyed iron-silicide/silicon solar cells: A simple approach for low cost environmental-friendly photovoltaic technology

• Published in: Scientific reports 2015-12, Vol.5 (1), p.17810-17810, Article 17810
• Main Authors: Kumar Dalapati, Goutam, Masudy-Panah, Saeid, Kumar, Avishek, Cheh Tan, Cheng, Ru Tan, Hui, Chi, Dongzhi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 639/166/987; 639/301/299/946; Aluminum; Fabrication; Humanities and Social Sciences; Iron; multidisciplinary; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaics; Science; Short-circuit current; Silicon; Silicon wafers; Solar cells; Temperature effects; Voltage
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep17810

This work demonstrates the fabrication of silicide/silicon based solar cell towards the development of low cost and environmental friendly photovoltaic technology. A heterostructure solar cells using metallic alpha phase (α-phase) aluminum alloyed iron silicide (FeSi(Al)) on n -type silicon is fabricated with an efficiency of 0.8%. The fabricated device has an open circuit voltage and fill-factor of 240 mV and 60%, respectively. Performance of the device was improved by about 7 fold to 5.1% through the interface engineering. The α-phase FeSi(Al)/silicon solar cell devices have promising photovoltaic characteristic with an open circuit voltage, short-circuit current and a fill factor (FF) of 425 mV, 18.5 mA/cm 2 and 64%, respectively. The significant improvement of α-phase FeSi(Al)/ n -Si solar cells is due to the formation p +− n homojunction through the formation of re-grown crystalline silicon layer (~5–10 nm) at the silicide/silicon interface. Thickness of the regrown silicon layer is crucial for the silicide/silicon based photovoltaic devices. Performance of the α-FeSi(Al)/ n -Si solar cells significantly depends on the thickness of α-FeSi(Al) layer and process temperature during the device fabrication. This study will open up new opportunities for the Si based photovoltaic technology using a simple, sustainable and los cost method.