Light-induced activation of boron doping in hydrogenated amorphous silicon for over 25% efficiency silicon solar cells

Wenzhu Liu(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Jianhua Shi(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Liping Zhang(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Anjun Han(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Shenglei Huang(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Xiaodong Li(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Jun Peng(Australian National University), Yuhao Yang(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Yajun Gao(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Jian Yu(Southwest Petroleum University), Kai Jiang(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Xinbo Yang(Soochow University), Zhenfei Li(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Wenjie Zhao(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Junlin Du(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Xin Song(Changzhou University), Jun Yin(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Jie Wang(Central South University), Youlin Yu(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Qiang Shi(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Zhixin Ma(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Haichuan Zhang, Jiajia Ling, Lujia Xu(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Jingxuan Kang(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Fuzong Xu(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Jiang Liu(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Hanyuan Liu(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Yaqin Xie, Fanying Meng(Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology), Stefaan De Wolf(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Frédéric Laquai(King Abdullah University of Science and Technology), Zengfeng Di(Chinese Academy of Sciences), Zhengxin Liu(Beijing Solar Energy Research Institute)
Nature Energy
May 12, 2022
10.1038/s41560-022-01018-5
Cited by 127Open Access
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Abstract

Abstract Recent achievements in amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells and perovskite/SHJ tandem solar cells place hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) at the forefront of photovoltaics. Due to the extremely low effective doping efficiency of trivalent boron in amorphous tetravalent silicon, light harvesting of aforementioned devices is limited by their fill factors (FFs), a direct metric of the charge carrier transport. It is challenging but crucial to develop highly conductive doped a-Si:H with minimal FF losses. Here we report that light soaking can efficiently boost the dark conductance of boron-doped a-Si:H thin films. Light induces diffusion and hopping of weakly bound hydrogen atoms, which activates boron doping. The effect is reversible and the dark conductivity decreases over time when the solar cell is no longer illuminated. By implementing this effect to SHJ solar cells, we achieved a certified total-area power conversion efficiency of 25.18% with a FF of 85.42% on a 244.63 cm 2 wafer.

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