FABRICATING HIGH-PERFORMANCE A-SI SOLAR-CELLS BY ALTERNATELY REPEATING DEPOSITION AND HYDROGEN PLASMA TREATMENT METHOD

The performance of a p-i buffer layer in pin amorphous silicon solar cell was improved by the ''alternately repeating deposition and hydrogen plasma treatment method (ADHT)''. The optical bandgap of the a-Si film was increased by hydrogen plasma treatment. The wide optical bandgap and the high photoconductive a-Si:H films without carbon could be fabricated by the ADHT method. The conversion efficiency of the solar cell with a-Si:H buffer layer was almost the same as that using an a-SiC:H buffer layer. Second, the a-Si (ADHT) films were applied to the n-i buffer layer. The insertion of a-Si (ADHT) films between the i-layer and the n-layer was effective to improve the cell performance, especially the fill factor. With the use of high performance a-Si p-i and n-i buffer layer deposited by ADHT method, a cell conversion efficiency of 12.9% was obtained.