Journal
APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
Volume 106, Issue 12, Pages -Publisher
AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1063/1.4916540
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation Princeton MRSEC Grant [DMR-0819860]
- DOE Sunshot Grant [DE-EE0005315]
- Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In this work, we use an electron-selective titanium dioxide (TiO2) heterojunction contact to silicon to block minority carrier holes in the silicon from recombining at the cathode contact of a silicon-based photovoltaic device. We present four pieces of evidence demonstrating the beneficial effect of adding the TiO2 hole-blocking layer: reduced dark current, increased open circuit voltage (V-OC), increased quantum efficiency at longer wavelengths, and increased stored minority carrier charge under forward bias. The importance of a low rate of recombination of minority carriers at the Si/TiO2 interface for effective blocking of minority carriers is quantitatively described. The anode is made of a poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfonate) heterojunction to silicon which forms a hole selective contact, so that the entire device is made at a maximum temperature of 100 degrees C, with no doping gradients or junctions in the silicon. A low rate of recombination of minority carriers at the Si/TiO2 interface is crucial for effective blocking of minority carriers. Such a pair of complementary carrier-selective heterojunctions offers a path towards high-efficiency silicon solar cells using relatively simple and near-room temperature fabrication techniques. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available