Structural and photovoltaic properties of a-Si (SNc)/c-Si heterojunction fabricated by EBPVD technique

Abstract

In last two decades sculptured thin films are very attractive for researches. Some properties of these thin films, like high porosity correspondingly high large surface area, controlled morphology; bring into prominence on them. Sculptured thin films have wide application areas as electronics, optics, mechanics, magnetic and chemistry. Slanted nano-columnar (SnC) thin films are a type of sculptured thin films. In this investigation SnC thin films were growth on n-type crystalline Si(100) and p-type crystalline Si(111) via ultra-high vacuum electron beam evaporation technique. The structural and morphological properties of the amorphous silicon thin films were investigated by XRD, Raman and FE-SEM analysis. According to the XRD and Raman analysis the structure of thin film was amorphous and FE-SEM analysis indicated slanted nano-columns were formed smoothly. Slanted nano-columns a-Si/c-Si heterojunction were prepared as using a photovoltaic device. In this regard we were researched photovoltaic properties of these heterojunction with current-voltage characterization under dark and illumination conditions. Electrical parameters were determined from the current-voltage characteristic in the dark conditions zero-bias barrier height ? B0 =0.83-1.00eV; diode ideality factor ?=11.71-10.73; series resistance R s =260-31.1 k? and shunt resistance R sh =25.71-63.5 M? SnC a-Si/n-Si and SnC a-Si/p-Si heterojunctions shows a pretty good photovoltaic behavior about 10 3 - 10 4 times. The obtained photovoltaic parameters are such as short circuit current density J sc 83-40 mA/m 2 , open circuit voltage V oc 900-831 mV. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.