What are Amorphous Silicon and Nanocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells?
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is a randomly ordered form of silicon where there is no periodicity to the site of the silicon atoms. The lack of atomic order means that not all silicon atoms form bonds with four silicon neighbours. Therefore some bonding sites on the silicon are free, which are referred to as dangling bonds. These bonds can be quenched with hydrogen atoms to form hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), which is used for solar cell fabrication. The high absorption coefficient of photons in its absorption range means that a thin film layer of amorphous silicon can be used for solar cell applications.
Fabrication methods for the deposition of amorphous silicon are usually based on chemical vapour deposition (CVD), including plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) and hot wire CVD (HWCVD). Doping of the a-Si:H is carried out during the deposition stage, through the addition of a dopant gas.
Nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) consists of regions of crystalline silicon in amongst a matrix of amorphous silicon. The band gap of this material approaches that of crystalline silicon, however the amorphous matrix greatly improve the photon absorption coefficient. The nc-Si films are produced by controlling the silane-to-hydrogen gas ratio in the PECVD procedure.
What are the challenges for Amorphous Silicon and Nanocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells?
The efficiency of a-Si:H degrades over time under exposure to light. This is known as the Staebler-Wronski effect. The initial efficiency of an a-Si:H solar cell may be > 12% in the laboratory, however it will decrease to around 5-6% after exposure to sun light over several months. The effect is related to the formation of defects, such as dangling bonds. Therefore maintaining the high efficiency of the initial device is considerable challenge.
The challenges facing nc-Si are to develop technologies capable of producing cost effective PV modules. The stability degradation issues observed for a-Si:H are greatly reduced for nc-Si. Therefore stable efficiencies of around 8.5% have been achieved. Low deposition rates and high cost of fabrication are currently limiting the uptake of nc-Si for commercial modules.
How are these challenges being addressed by SISER researchers?
Heriot Watt University has been carrying out research on the development of amorphous silicon solar cells by Radio Frequency PECVD. Their current project is on the development of flexible thin film solar cells on textiles. Textile substrates offer the advantage of scattering from their textured surface leading to an enhancement of optical absorption. Potential applications of such solar cells include disaster relief shelters, agriculture and architecture. The research is focused on looking to find suitable material substrates to withstand the harsh fabrication procedure of PECVD. Furthermore, the scattering from these materials is being analysed to optimise the optical absorption.
Another area of research in which SISER is active is on the use of HWCVD for thin film silicon solar cells. The University of Dundee carries out research on improving the efficiency of thin film amorphous silicon solar cells. Their recent research includes work on maximising the efficiency of p-i-n devices includes the study of the metastability of microcrystalline thin films deposited by the Hot Wire CVD method.
SISER researchers with interest in this area are: Dr Steve Reynolds and Prof. John Wilson.
Full details of all SISER researchers are found on the SISER People Page.
Publications
B Aubert, M Bona, D Boutigny, Y Karyotakis, J P Lees, V Poireau, X Prudent, V Tisserand, A Zghiche, Garra J Tico, E Grauges, L Lopez, A Palano, M Pappagallo, G Eigen, B Stugu, L Sun, G S Abrams, M Battaglia, D N Brown, J Button-Shafer, R N Cahn, Y Groysman, R G Jacobsen, J A Kadyk, L T Kerth, Yu G Kolomensky, G Kukartsev, Lopes D Pegna, G Lynch, L M Mir, T J Orimoto, I L Osipenkov, M T Ronan, K Tackmann, T Tanabe, W A Wenzel, P Amo Sanchez, C M Hawkes, A T Watson, H Koch, T Schroeder, D Walker, D J Asgeirsson, T Cuhadar-Donszelmann, B G Fulsom, C Hearty, T S Mattison, J A McKenna, M Barrett, A Khan, M Saleem, L Teodorescu, V E Blinov, A D Bukin, V P Druzhinin, V B Golubev, A P Onuchin, S I Serednyakov, Yu I Skovpen, E P Solodov, Yu K Todyshev, M Bondioli, S Curry, I Eschrich, D Kirkby, A J Lankford, P Lund, M Mandelkern, E C Martin, D P Stoker, S Abachi, C Buchanan, J W Gary, F Liu, O Long, B C Shen, G M Vitug, L Zhang, H P Paar, S Rahatlou, V Sharma, J W Berryhill, C Campagnari, A Cunha, B Dahmes, T M Hong, D Kovalskyi, J D Richman, T W Beck, A M Eisner, C J Flacco, C A Heusch, J Kroseberg, W S Lockman, T Schalk, B A Schumm, A Seiden, M G Wilson, L O Winstrom and others. Search for CPT and lorentz violation in B(0)-(B)over-bar(0) oscillations with dilepton events. Physical Review Letters 100(13), 2008. N S Daghestani, S Persheyev, M A Cataluna, G Ross and M J Rose. THz generation from a nanocrystalline silicon-based photoconductive device. Semiconductor Science and Technology 26(7), 2011. R Gottschalg, T R Betts, D G Infield, M J Kearney and Ieee Ieee. Experimental investigation of spectral effects on amorphous silicon solar cells in outdoor operation. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth Ieee Photovoltaic Specialists Conference 2002 series, 2002. R Gottschalg, C N Jardine, R Ruther, T R Betts, G J Conibeer, J Close, D G Infield, M K Kearney, K H Lam, K Lane, H Pang, R Tscharner and Ieee Ieee. Performance of amorphous silicon double junction photovoltaic systems in different climatic zones. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth Ieee Photovoltaic Specialists Conference 2002 series, 2002. M M Halim, A Abdolvand, Y Fan, S K Persheyev, C Main, E U Rafailov, M J Rose and Ieee. Laser Assisted Microstructuring of Amorphous Silicon for Microelectronics. 2010 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics series, 2010. J Hugman, B S Richards and A Crosky. Phase characterisation of TiO2 thin films using micro-Raman spectroscopy and glancing angle X-ray diffraction. Commad 2002 Proceedings series, 2002. Helena Lind, John Wilson and Robert Mather. Raman spectroscopy of thin-film silicon on woven polyester. Physica Status Solidi a-Applications and Materials Science 208(12):2765-2771, 2011. D DimovaMalinovska, D Nesheva, A G Petrov and M T Primatarowa (eds.). Study of thin-film silicon solar cells at irradiances above ten thousand suns. Journal of Physics Conference Series series, volume 253, 2010. R R Mather and Jib Wilson. Solar textiles: production and distribution of electricity coming from solar radiation applications. Intelligent Textiles and Clothing series, 2006. Photovoltaic cell for deposition to textile, has fibers forming textile, where area of textile in which cell is deposited conducts electricity and fibers forming textile in area are stuck together. J McGill, J I B Wilson and S Kinmond. INTERFACIAL LAYER IN MIS AMORPHOUS SILICON SOLAR-CELLS. Journal of Applied Physics 50(1):548-550, 1979. K A O'Neill, M Z Shaikh, G Lyttle, S Anthony, Y C Fan, S K Persheyev and M J Rose. Laser annealed HWCVD and PECVD thin silicon films. Electron field emission. Thin Solid Films 501(1-2):310-313, 2006. G Ganguly, M Kondo, E A Schiff, R Carius and R Biswas (eds.). Metastability in undoped microcrystalline silicon thin films deposited by HWCVD. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings series, volume 808, pages 41-46, 2004. S K Persheyev, V Smirnov, K A O'Neill, S Reynolds and M J Rose. Atmospheric adsorption effects in hot-wire chemical-vapor-deposition microcrystalline silicon films with different electrode configurations. Semiconductors 39(3):343-346, 2005. Henrik P Porte, Dmitry Turchinovich, Saydulla Persheyev, Yongchang Fan, Mervyn J Rose and Peter Uhd Jepsen. Effect of Copper on the Carrier Lifetime in Black Silicon. Journal of Infrared Millimeter and Terahertz Waves 32(7):883-886, 2011. Carrier mobility and density of states in microcrystalline silicon film compositions, probed using time-of-flight photocurrent spectroscopy. Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials 11(9):1086-1092, 2009. D DimovaMalinovska, D Nesheva, A G Petrov and M T Primatarowa (eds.). Carrier mobility, band tails and defects in microcrystalline silicon. Journal of Physics Conference Series series, volume 253, 2010. Steve Reynolds, Suman Anand, Amjad Meftah and Vladimir Smirnov. Properties of thin-film silicon solar cells at very high irradiance. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 358(17):2202-2205, 2012. Steve Reynolds, Charles Main, Vladimir Smirnov and Amjad Meftah. Intensity dependence of quantum efficiency and photo-gating effects in thin film silicon solar cells. Physica Status Solidi C - Current Topics in Solid State Physics, Vol 7 No 3-4 7(3-4):505-508, 2010. S Reynolds, V Smirnov, F Finger, C Main and R Carius. Transport and instabilities in microcrystalline silicon films. Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials 7(1):91-98, 2005. J R Abelson, G Ganguly, H Matsumura, J Robertson and E A Schiff (eds.). Localised states in microcrystalline silicon photovoltaic structures studied by post-transit time-of-flight spectroscopy. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings series, volume 762, pages 327-332, 2003. G Ganguly, M Kondo, E A Schiff, R Carius and R Biswas (eds.). Interpretation of transient photocurrents in coplanar and sandwich PIN microcrystalline silicon structures. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings series, volume 808, pages 127-132, 2004. B S Richards, A Lambertz and A B Sproul. Determination of the optical properties of non-uniformly thick non-hydrogenated sputtered silicon thin films on glass. Thin Solid Films 460(1-2):247-255, 2004. F Riddoch, A Wallace and J I B Wilson. DOPING OF AMORPHOUS-SILICON FOR SOLAR-CELLS. Solar Cells 1(1):99-106, 1979. F Riddoch and J I B Wilson. THE ENERGY-COST OF AMORPHOUS SILICON SOLAR-CELLS. Solar Cells 2(2):141-149, 1980. M Z Shaikh, K A O'Neill, S Anthony, S K Persheyev and M J Rose. Optical and electronic properties of HWCVD and PECVD silicon films irradiated using excimer and Nd : Yag lasers. Thin Solid Films 501(1-2):125-128, 2006. V Smirnov, S Reynolds, F Finger, R Carius and C Main. Metastable effects in silicon thin films: Atmospheric adsorption and light-induced degradation. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 352(9-20):1075-1078, 2006. G Ganguly, M Kondo, E A Schiff, R Carius and R Biswas (eds.). The influence of light-soaking and atmospheric adsorption on microcrystalline silicon films studied by coplanar transient photoconductivity. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings series, volume 808, pages 47-52, 2004. N Souffi, G H Bauer, C Main, S Reynolds and R Brueggemann. Density of states in the gap of microcrystalline silicon determined from thermally-stimulated currents. Thin Solid Films 516(20):6844-6847, 2008. R F Thompson, Y M Hassan and J I B Wilson. HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON SCHOTTKY SOLAR-CELLS - THE EFFECTS OF CONTAMINATION BY DOPANTS IN THE UNDOPED LAYER. Solar Cells 10(2):189-198, 1983. J I B Wilson and J McGill. AMORPHOUS-SILICON MIS SOLAR-CELLS. Iee Journal on Solid-State and Electron Devices 2:S7-S10, 1978. J I B Wilson, J McGill and S Kinmond. AMORPHOUS SILICON MIS SOLAR-CELLS. Nature 272(5649):152-153, 1978. J I B Wilson, J McGill and D Weaire. RECENT PROGRESS IN THIN-FILM SOLAR-CELLS. Advances in Physics 27(3):365-385, 1978. J I B Wilson, S Porro, P John, I Villalpando and H Lind. PLASMA ENHANCED CVD OF MATERIALS FOR ENERGY CONVERTERS: NANO-SILICON FOR SOLAR CELLS AND NANO-DIAMOND FOR FUSION REACTORS. Romanian Journal of Physics 56:15-22, 2011. J I B Wilson and D Weaire. PROSPECTS FOR USE OF AMORPHOUS-SEMICONDUCTORS IN SOLAR-ENERGY CONVERSION. Nature 275(5676):93-96, 1978. Hang Zhou, Alan Colli, Tim Butler, Nalin Rupesinghe, Asim Mumtaz, Gehan Amaratunga and John I B Wilson. Carbon nanotube arrays for optical design of amorphous silicon solar cells. International Journal of Material Forming 1(2):113-116, 2008. J H Zollondz, S Reynolds, C Main, V Smirnov and I Zrinscak. The influence of defects on response speed of high gain two-beam photogating in a-Si : H PIN structures. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 299:594-598, 2002.
BibTeX@article{Search for CPT and lorentz violation in B(0)-(B)over-bar(0) oscillations with dilepton events,
author = "Aubert, B. and Bona, M. and Boutigny, D. and Karyotakis, Y. and Lees, J. P. and Poireau, V. and Prudent, X. and Tisserand, V. and Zghiche, A. and Tico, J. Garra and Grauges, E. and Lopez, L. and Palano, A. and Pappagallo, M. and Eigen, G. and Stugu, B. and Sun, L. and Abrams, G. S. and Battaglia, M. and Brown, D. N. and Button-Shafer, J. and Cahn, R. N. and Groysman, Y. and Jacobsen, R. G. and Kadyk, J. A. and Kerth, L. T. and Kolomensky, Yu G. and Kukartsev, G. and Pegna, D. Lopes and Lynch, G. and Mir, L. M. and Orimoto, T. J. and Osipenkov, I. L. and Ronan, M. T. and Tackmann, K. and Tanabe, T. and Wenzel, W. A. and del Amo Sanchez, P. and Hawkes, C. M. and Watson, A. T. and Koch, H. and Schroeder, T. and Walker, D. and Asgeirsson, D. J. and Cuhadar-Donszelmann, T. and Fulsom, B. G. and Hearty, C. and Mattison, T. S. and McKenna, J. A. and Barrett, M. and Khan, A. and Saleem, M. and Teodorescu, L. and Blinov, V. E. and Bukin, A. D. and Druzhinin, V. P. and Golubev, V. B. and Onuchin, A. P. and Serednyakov, S. I. and Skovpen, Yu I. and Solodov, E. P. and Todyshev, K. Yu and Bondioli, M. and Curry, S. and Eschrich, I. and Kirkby, D. and Lankford, A. J. and Lund, P. and Mandelkern, M. and Martin, E. C. and Stoker, D. P. and Abachi, S. and Buchanan, C. and Gary, J. W. and Liu, F. and Long, O. and Shen, B. C. and Vitug, G. M. and Zhang, L. and Paar, H. P. and Rahatlou, S. and Sharma, V. and Berryhill, J. W. and Campagnari, C. and Cunha, A. and Dahmes, B. and Hong, T. M. and Kovalskyi, D. and Richman, J. D. and Beck, T. W. and Eisner, A. M. and Flacco, C. J. and Heusch, C. A. and Kroseberg, J. and Lockman, W. S. and Schalk, T. and Schumm, B. A. and Seiden, A. and Wilson, M. G. and Winstrom, L. O. and others",
title = "Search for CPT and lorentz violation in B(0)-(B)over-bar(0) oscillations with dilepton events",
journal = "Physical Review Letters",
volume = 100,
number = 13,
note = "Times Cited: 24 Patrignani, Claudia/C-5223-2009; Lista, Luca/C-5719-2008; Bellini, Fabio/D-1055-2009; Neri, Nicola/G-3991-2012; Forti, Francesco/H-3035-2011; Rotondo, Marcello/I-6043-2012; de Sangro, Riccardo/J-2901-2012; Lo Vetere, Maurizio/J-5049-2012; Monge, Maria Roberta/G-9127-2012; Saeed, Mohammad/J-7455-2012; Della Ricca, Giuseppe/B-6826-2013 Patrignani, Claudia/0000-0002-5882-1747; Forti, Francesco/0000-0001-6535-7965; de Sangro, Riccardo/0000-0002-3808-5455; Lo Vetere, Maurizio/0000-0002-6520-4480; Monge, Maria Roberta/0000-0003-1633-3195; Saeed, Mohammad/0000-0002-3529-9255; Della Ricca, Giuseppe/0000-0003-2831-6982 24",
year = 2008
}
BibTeX@article{THz generation from a nanocrystalline silicon-based photoconductive device,
author = "Daghestani, N. S. and Persheyev, S. and Cataluna, M. A. and Ross, G. and Rose, M. J.",
title = "THz generation from a nanocrystalline silicon-based photoconductive device",
journal = "Semiconductor Science and Technology",
volume = 26,
number = 7,
note = "Times Cited: 1",
abstract = "Terahertz generation has been achieved from a photoconductive switch based on hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H), gated by a femtosecond laser. The nc-Si:H samples were produced by a hot wire chemical vapour deposition process, a process with low production costs owing to its higher growth rate and manufacturing simplicity. Although promising ultrafast carrier dynamics of nc-Si have been previously demonstrated, this is the first report on THz generation from a nc-Si:H material.",
year = 2011
}
BibTeX@book{Experimental investigation of spectral effects on amorphous silicon solar cells in outdoor operation,
author = "Gottschalg, R. and Betts, T. R. and Infield, D. G. and Kearney, M. J. and Ieee, Ieee",
title = "Experimental investigation of spectral effects on amorphous silicon solar cells in outdoor operation",
series = "Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth Ieee Photovoltaic Specialists Conference 2002",
note = "Times Cited: 0 Betts, Thomas/F-9010-2010; Gottschalg, Ralph/C-3654-2013 Gottschalg, Ralph/0000-0002-0066-0899 29th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference May 19-24, 2002 New orleans, la IEEE Electron Devices Soc",
pages = "1138-1141",
year = 2002
}
BibTeX@book{Performance of amorphous silicon double junction photovoltaic systems in different climatic zones,
author = "Gottschalg, R. and Jardine, C. N. and Ruther, R. and Betts, T. R. and Conibeer, G. J. and Close, J. and Infield, D. G. and Kearney, M. K. and Lam, K. H. and Lane, K. and Pang, H. and Tscharner, R. and Ieee, Ieee",
title = "Performance of amorphous silicon double junction photovoltaic systems in different climatic zones",
series = "Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth Ieee Photovoltaic Specialists Conference 2002",
note = "Times Cited: 0 Betts, Thomas/F-9010-2010; Gottschalg, Ralph/C-3654-2013 Gottschalg, Ralph/0000-0002-0066-0899 29th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference May 19-24, 2002 New orleans, la IEEE Electron Devices Soc",
pages = "1699-1702",
year = 2002
}
BibTeX@book{Laser Assisted Microstructuring of Amorphous Silicon for Microelectronics,
author = "Halim, M. M. and Abdolvand, A. and Fan, Y. and Persheyev, S. K. and Main, C. and Rafailov, E. U. and Rose, M. J. and Ieee",
title = "Laser Assisted Microstructuring of Amorphous Silicon for Microelectronics",
series = "2010 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics",
note = "Times Cited: 0 CLEO Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO)/Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference (QELS) MAY 16-21, 2010 San Jose, CA",
abstract = "We present experimental and theoretical work on excimer laser microstructuring of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H) films on molybdenum coated glass substrates, in the form of sharp and conical poly-Si spikes, for electron field emission applications. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America",
year = 2010
}
BibTeX@book{Phase characterisation of TiO2 thin films using micro-Raman spectroscopy and glancing angle X-ray diffraction,
author = "Hugman, J. and Richards, B. S. and Crosky, A.",
title = "Phase characterisation of TiO2 thin films using micro-Raman spectroscopy and glancing angle X-ray diffraction",
series = "Commad 2002 Proceedings",
note = "Times Cited: 0 Conference on Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices (COMMAD) Dec 11-13, 2002 Univ new s wales, sydney, australia Ansto Sims Lab; Avt Vacuum & Cryogen Serv; Coltron Syst Pty Ltd; Heys Technol Int Pty Ltd; IEEE, Elect Devices Soc; IEEE, Lasers & Electro Opt Soc; LASTEK Pty Ltd; Oxford Instruments Plasma Technol Pty Ltd; PANalytical; PHILIPS ELECT; SCITEK AUSTRALIA Pty Ltd; WARSASH SCI Pty Ltd",
pages = "181-184",
year = 2002
}
BibTeX@article{Raman spectroscopy of thin-film silicon on woven polyester,
author = "Lind, Helena and Wilson, John and Mather, Robert",
title = "Raman spectroscopy of thin-film silicon on woven polyester",
journal = "Physica Status Solidi a-Applications and Materials Science",
volume = 208,
number = 12,
pages = "2765-2771",
note = "Times Cited: 0 0",
year = 2011
}
BibTeX@inbook{Study of thin-film silicon solar cells at irradiances above ten thousand suns,
author = "Lu, Yeping and Abdolvand, Amin and Reynolds, Steve",
title = "Study of thin-film silicon solar cells at irradiances above ten thousand suns",
booktitle = "16 Iscmp: Progress in Solid State and Molecular Electronics, Ionics and Photonics",
editor = "DimovaMalinovska, D. and Nesheva, D. and Petrov, A. G. and Primatarowa, M. T.",
series = "Journal of Physics Conference Series",
volume = 253,
note = "Times Cited: 1 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 Conference on 16 ISCMP Aug 29-sep 03, 2010 Varna, BULGARIA Inst Solid State Phys Bulgarian Acad Sci",
year = 2010
}
BibTeX@book{Solar textiles: production and distribution of electricity coming from solar radiation applications,
author = "Mather, R. R. and Wilson, Jib",
title = "Solar textiles: production and distribution of electricity coming from solar radiation applications",
series = "Intelligent Textiles and Clothing",
note = "Times Cited: 0",
pages = "206-216",
year = 2006
}
BibTeX@misc{Photovoltaic cell for deposition to textile,
has fibers forming textile, where area of textile in which cell is deposited conducts electricity and fibers forming textile in area are stuck together, author = "Mather, R. R. and Wilson, J. I. B.",
title = "Photovoltaic cell for deposition to textile, has fibers forming textile, where area of textile in which cell is deposited conducts electricity and fibers forming textile in area are stuck together",
publisher = "Wilson J I B; Power Textiles Ltd",
isbn = "WO2009133336-A2; WO2009133336-A3; EP2286460-A2"
}
BibTeX@article{INTERFACIAL LAYER IN MIS AMORPHOUS SILICON SOLAR-CELLS,
author = "McGill, J. and Wilson, J. I. B. and Kinmond, S.",
title = "INTERFACIAL LAYER IN MIS AMORPHOUS SILICON SOLAR-CELLS",
journal = "Journal of Applied Physics",
volume = 50,
number = 1,
pages = "548-550",
note = "Times Cited: 6 6",
year = 1979
}
BibTeX@article{Laser annealed HWCVD and PECVD thin silicon films. Electron field emission,
author = "O'Neill, K. A. and Shaikh, M. Z. and Lyttle, G. and Anthony, S. and Fan, Y. C. and Persheyev, S. K. and Rose, M. J.",
title = "Laser annealed HWCVD and PECVD thin silicon films. Electron field emission",
journal = "Thin Solid Films",
volume = 501,
number = "1-2",
pages = "310-313",
note = "Times Cited: 4 3rd International Conference on Hot-Wire CVD Process AUG 23-27, 2004 Utrecht Univ, Utrecht, NETHERLANDS",
abstract = "Electron Field Emission (FE) properties of various laser annealed thin silicon films on different substrates were investigated. HWCVD microcrystalline and PECVD amorphous silicon films were irradiated with Nd:YAG and XeCl Excimer lasers at varying energy densities. Encouraging FE results were mainly from XeCl Excimer laser processed PECVD and HWCVD films on metal backplanes. FE measurements were complemented by the study of film surface morphology. Geometric field enhancement factors from surface measurements and Fowler-Nordheim Theory (FNT) were compared. FE properties of the films were also found to be particularly influenced by the backplane material. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.",
year = 2006
}
BibTeX@inbook{Metastability in undoped microcrystalline silicon thin films deposited by HWCVD,
author = "Persheyev, S. K. and O'Neill, K. A. and Anthony, S. and Rose, M. J. and Smirnov, V. and Reynolds, S.",
title = "Metastability in undoped microcrystalline silicon thin films deposited by HWCVD",
booktitle = "Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon Science and Technology- 2004",
editor = "Ganguly, G. and Kondo, M. and Schiff, E. A. and Carius, R. and Biswas, R.",
series = "Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings",
volume = 808,
pages = "41-46",
note = "Times Cited: 0 Symposium on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon Science and Technology held at the 2004 MRS Spring Meeting APR 13-16, 2004 San Francisco, CA Mat Res Soc",
abstract = "Films deposited by the Hot Wire CVD method were studied by means of dark conductivity, FTIR, Hydrogen Evolution, SEM and AFM surface characterization. Three types of metastability were observed: a) long term irreversible degradation due to oxidization processes on the film surface, b) reversible degradation determined by uncontrolled water adsorption, c) fast field switching effect in the film bulk. Oxygen and hydrogen content and its bonding configurations have been analyzed by hydrogen evolution and infrared spectroscopy methods on the films deposited on glass substrates and silicon wafers subsequently. It has been found that metastable processes close to the film surface are stronger than in the bulk. The switching effect is the fast increase of charge carrier density observed on bottom chromium contacts under a condition of air admittance. We propose this effect is associated with morphology changes during film growth and electrical field induced by adsorbed atmospheric components on the film surface.",
year = 2004
}
BibTeX@article{Atmospheric adsorption effects in hot-wire chemical-vapor-deposition microcrystalline silicon films with different electrode configurations,
author = "Persheyev, S. K. and Smirnov, V. and O'Neill, K. A. and Reynolds, S. and Rose, M. J.",
title = "Atmospheric adsorption effects in hot-wire chemical-vapor-deposition microcrystalline silicon films with different electrode configurations",
journal = "Semiconductors",
volume = 39,
number = 3,
pages = "343-346",
note = "Times Cited: 1",
abstract = "Hot-wire chemical-vapor-disposition (CVD) thin silicon films are studied by means of dark conductivity, FTIR, hydrogen evolution, and SEM surface characterization. Three types of metastability are observed: (1) long term irreversible degradation due to oxidization processes on the film surface, (2) reversible degradation determined by uncontrolled water and/or oxygen adsorption, and (3) a fast field-switching effect in the film bulk. We propose that this effect is associated with the morphology changes during film growth and an electrical field induced by adsorbed atmospheric components on the film surface. It is found that metastable processes close to the film surface are stronger than in the bulk. (c) 2005 Pleiades Publishing, Inc.",
year = 2005
}
BibTeX@article{Effect of Copper on the Carrier Lifetime in Black Silicon,
author = "Porte, Henrik P. and Turchinovich, Dmitry and Persheyev, Saydulla and Fan, Yongchang and Rose, Mervyn J. and Jepsen, Peter Uhd",
title = "Effect of Copper on the Carrier Lifetime in Black Silicon",
journal = "Journal of Infrared Millimeter and Terahertz Waves",
volume = 32,
number = 7,
pages = "883-886",
note = "Times Cited: 0",
abstract = "Black silicon is produced by laser annealing of a-Si:H films. During annealing, silicon microstructures are formed on the surface. We use time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy to study the photoconductivity dynamics in black silicon. We find that when a copper film is deposited on top of the a-Si:H layer prior to laser annealing, the carrier lifetime of black silicon is significantly reduced.",
year = 2011
}
BibTeX@article{Carrier mobility and density of states in microcrystalline silicon film compositions,
probed using time-of-flight photocurrent spectroscopy, author = "Reynolds, S.",
title = "Carrier mobility and density of states in microcrystalline silicon film compositions, probed using time-of-flight photocurrent spectroscopy",
journal = "Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials",
volume = 11,
number = 9,
pages = "1086-1092",
note = "Times Cited: 1 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 1",
year = 2009
}
BibTeX@inbook{Carrier mobility,
band tails and defects in microcrystalline silicon, author = "Reynolds, Steve",
title = "Carrier mobility, band tails and defects in microcrystalline silicon",
booktitle = "16 Iscmp: Progress in Solid State and Molecular Electronics, Ionics and Photonics",
editor = "DimovaMalinovska, D. and Nesheva, D. and Petrov, A. G. and Primatarowa, M. T.",
series = "Journal of Physics Conference Series",
volume = 253,
note = "Times Cited: 0 012002 Conference on 16 ISCMP AUG 29-SEP 03, 2010 Varna, BULGARIA Inst Solid State Phys Bulgarian Acad Sci",
abstract = "The development of microcrystalline silicon thin films and devices is briefly reviewed. Transport mechanisms, and the attendant key parameters of carrier mobility, band-tail width and defect density, are linked to film structure and composition. In particular we discuss the wide (but systematic) variations in time-of-flight mobility and its unusual field-dependence. While microcrystalline silicon remains an inferior semiconductor to single-crystal silicon, we propose, and support by means of a computer model, that present device-grade material may be of sufficient quality to justify re-examining whether useful thin-film bipolar devices might be developed. These could find application as more sensitive photo-detectors, and as current drivers in organic LED displays and logic circuits.",
year = 2010
}
BibTeX@article{Properties of thin-film silicon solar cells at very high irradiance,
author = "Reynolds, Steve and Anand, Suman and Meftah, Amjad and Smirnov, Vladimir",
title = "Properties of thin-film silicon solar cells at very high irradiance",
journal = "Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids",
volume = 358,
number = 17,
pages = "2202-2205",
note = "Times Cited: 0 SI 24th International Conference on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Semiconductors (ICANS) AUG 21-26, 2011 Nara, JAPAN Japan Soc Promot Sci; 147th Comm Amorphous & Nanocrystalline Mat; Commemorat Org Japan World Expositi; Osaka Univ Global COE Program Core Res & Engn Adv Mat Interdisciplinary Educ Ctr Mat Sci; Asahi Glass Fdn; ALS Tech Co Ltd; Crev Inc; Coherent Inc; DAIHEN Corp; Dainippon Screen Co Ltd; HOYA Corp; J A Woollam Co Inc; Kaneka Corp; KEYENCE Corp; Mitsubishi Heavy Ind Ltd; Nano Photon; Nisshin Steel Co Ltd; Samco Inc; Sanyo Elect Co Ltd; Semicond Energy Lab Co Ltd; Shimadzu Corp; SNK Corp; Tokyo Elect Ltd; TOYO Corp; ULVAC Inc",
abstract = "The focussed beam of a low-power helium-neon laser is used to study accelerated light-induced degradation (Staebler-Wronski effect) and high steady-state photocarrier generation rates in amorphous and microcrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells, at up to 13 MW m(-2) irradiance. Even at these high power densities, COMSOL (R) simulations indicate that heat diffusion into the substrate, aided by spreading conduction via the Ag back-contact, restricts the temperature rise to less than 14 degrees C. Short-circuit current may be measured directly, and the I-V characteristic estimated by taking into account shunting by the inactive part of the cell. The improved resistance to degradation of microcrystalline silicon cells is shown to persist to high irradiance. Computer simulations of an amorphous silicon solar cell are presented that are consistent with measured un-degraded and degraded properties, and offer insight into prevailing defect creation processes and carrier recombination mechanisms. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.",
year = 2012
}
BibTeX@article{Intensity dependence of quantum efficiency and photo-gating effects in thin film silicon solar cells,
author = "Reynolds, Steve and Main, Charles and Smirnov, Vladimir and Meftah, Amjad",
title = "Intensity dependence of quantum efficiency and photo-gating effects in thin film silicon solar cells",
journal = "Physica Status Solidi C - Current Topics in Solid State Physics, Vol 7 No 3-4",
volume = 7,
number = "3-4",
pages = "505-508",
note = "Times Cited: 0 Schropp, REI 23rd International Conference on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Semiconductors (ICANS23) AUG 23-28, 2009 Utrecht, NETHERLANDS *****************",
abstract = "Steady-state photoconductivity measurements have been carried out on thin-film silicon pin structures of i-layer thickness typically 4 mu m, where crystalline composition has been varied by adjustment of the silane concentration in the process gas. In amorphous and low-crystallinity cells, strongly-absorbed light incident from the p-side at photon fluxes in excess of 10(14) cm(-2) s(-1) produces strongly sub-linear intensity dependence, 'S' shaped reverse current-voltage curves and amplification of a second weakly-absorbed beam, termed photogating. These effects are linked to the formation of space charge and attendant low-field region close to the p-i interface, as confirmed by computer simulation. More crystalline devices exhibit little or no such behaviour. At lower intensities of strongly-absorbed light there is a markedly steeper increase in reverse current vs. voltage in low-crystalline when compared to amorphous cells, particularly with light incident from the n-side. This suggests the mobility-lifetime product for holes is much larger in the former case, consistent with the higher hole mobilities reported in time of flight studies. Thus the prospect of composition-dependent changes in mobility as well as defect density should be borne in mind when developing materials for application in microcrystalline silicon solar cells. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim",
year = 2010
}
BibTeX@article{Transport and instabilities in microcrystalline silicon films,
author = "Reynolds, S. and Smirnov, V. and Finger, F. and Main, C. and Carius, R.",
title = "Transport and instabilities in microcrystalline silicon films",
journal = "Journal of Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials",
volume = 7,
number = 1,
pages = "91-98",
note = "Times Cited: 12 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 13th International School on Condensed Matter Physics Aug 30-sep 03, 2004 Varna, BULGARIA Bulgarian Acad Sci; Inst Solid State Phys, Sofia; Univ Wales Swansea 12",
year = 2005
}
BibTeX@inbook{Localised states in microcrystalline silicon photovoltaic structures studied by post-transit time-of-flight spectroscopy,
author = "Reynolds, S. and Smirnov, V. and Main, C. and Carius, R. and Finger, F.",
title = "Localised states in microcrystalline silicon photovoltaic structures studied by post-transit time-of-flight spectroscopy",
booktitle = "Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon-Based Films-2003",
editor = "Abelson, J. R. and Ganguly, G. and Matsumura, H. and Robertson, J. and Schiff, E. A.",
series = "Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings",
volume = 762,
pages = "327-332",
note = "Times Cited: 2 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 Symposium on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon-Based Films held at the 2003 MRS Spring Meeting Apr 22-25, 2003 San francisco, ca Mat Res Soc; BP Solar Inc; MVSystems; Natl Renewable Energy Lab; Sanyo Elect Co Ltd; United Solar Syst Corp; Voltaix Inc; Xerox PARC",
year = 2003
}
BibTeX@inbook{Interpretation of transient photocurrents in coplanar and sandwich PIN microcrystalline silicon structures,
author = "Reynolds, S. and Smirnov, V. and Main, C. and Finger, F. and Carius, R.",
title = "Interpretation of transient photocurrents in coplanar and sandwich PIN microcrystalline silicon structures",
booktitle = "Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon Science and Technology- 2004",
editor = "Ganguly, G. and Kondo, M. and Schiff, E. A. and Carius, R. and Biswas, R.",
series = "Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings",
volume = 808,
pages = "127-132",
note = "Times Cited: 2 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 Symposium on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon Science and Technology held at the 2004 MRS Spring Meeting Apr 13-16, 2004 San Francisco, CA Mat Res Soc",
year = 2004
}
BibTeX@article{Determination of the optical properties of non-uniformly thick non-hydrogenated sputtered silicon thin films on glass,
author = "Richards, B. S. and Lambertz, A. and Sproul, A. B.",
title = "Determination of the optical properties of non-uniformly thick non-hydrogenated sputtered silicon thin films on glass",
journal = "Thin Solid Films",
volume = 460,
number = "1-2",
pages = "247-255",
note = "Times Cited: 12 Lambertz, Andreas/A-6210-2013 Lambertz, Andreas/0000-0001-8275-6837 13",
year = 2004
}
BibTeX@article{DOPING OF AMORPHOUS-SILICON FOR SOLAR-CELLS,
author = "Riddoch, F. and Wallace, A. and Wilson, J. I. B.",
title = "DOPING OF AMORPHOUS-SILICON FOR SOLAR-CELLS",
journal = "Solar Cells",
volume = 1,
number = 1,
pages = "99-106",
note = "Times Cited: 1 1",
year = 1979
}
BibTeX@article{THE ENERGY-COST OF AMORPHOUS SILICON SOLAR-CELLS,
author = "Riddoch, F. and Wilson, J. I. B.",
title = "THE ENERGY-COST OF AMORPHOUS SILICON SOLAR-CELLS",
journal = "Solar Cells",
volume = 2,
number = 2,
pages = "141-149",
note = "Times Cited: 5 5",
year = 1980
}
BibTeX@article{Optical and electronic properties of HWCVD and PECVD silicon films irradiated using excimer and Nd : Yag lasers,
author = "Shaikh, M. Z. and O'Neill, K. A. and Anthony, S. and Persheyev, S. K. and Rose, M. J.",
title = "Optical and electronic properties of HWCVD and PECVD silicon films irradiated using excimer and Nd : Yag lasers",
journal = "Thin Solid Films",
volume = 501,
number = "1-2",
pages = "125-128",
note = "Times Cited: 2 3rd International Conference on Hot-Wire CVD (Cat-CVD) Process AUG 23-27, 2004 Utrecht Univ, Utrecht, NETHERLANDS",
abstract = "Thin silicon film samples were deposited using HWCVD and PECVD techniques to study the influence of laser annealing oil their optical and electronic properties. Samples were annealed in air using a XeCl excimer and Nd:Yag lasers. Excimer laser annealing (ELA) at 50 to 222 mJ/cm(2) increased conductivity in PECVD films by 2 to 3 orders of magnitude and in HWCVD films by 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. ELA was also seen to decrease the optical gap in PECVD films by 0.5 eV and HWCVD films by 0.15 eV. Silicon-oxygen bond content was higher in as-deposited HWCVD films than PECVD films. Hydrogen content (at.%) in PECVD films was higher than HWCVD for higher H dilution ratios. A Nd:Yag laser 3-bearn interference pattern was used to produce a periodic array of crystals in both PECVD and HWCVD films. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.",
year = 2006
}
BibTeX@article{Metastable effects in silicon thin films: Atmospheric adsorption and light-induced degradation,
author = "Smirnov, V. and Reynolds, S. and Finger, F. and Carius, R. and Main, C.",
title = "Metastable effects in silicon thin films: Atmospheric adsorption and light-induced degradation",
journal = "Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids",
volume = 352,
number = "9-20",
pages = "1075-1078",
note = "Times Cited: 8 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 21st International Conference on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Semiconductors Sep 04-09, 2005 Lisbon, PORTUGAL 8",
year = 2006
}
BibTeX@inbook{The influence of light-soaking and atmospheric adsorption on microcrystalline silicon films studied by coplanar transient photoconductivity,
author = "Smirnov, V. and Reynolds, S. and Finger, F. and Main, C. and Carius, R.",
title = "The influence of light-soaking and atmospheric adsorption on microcrystalline silicon films studied by coplanar transient photoconductivity",
booktitle = "Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon Science and Technology- 2004",
editor = "Ganguly, G. and Kondo, M. and Schiff, E. A. and Carius, R. and Biswas, R.",
series = "Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings",
volume = 808,
pages = "47-52",
note = "Times Cited: 3 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 Symposium on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Silicon Science and Technology held at the 2004 MRS Spring Meeting Apr 13-16, 2004 San Francisco, CA Mat Res Soc",
year = 2004
}
BibTeX@article{Density of states in the gap of microcrystalline silicon determined from thermally-stimulated currents,
author = "Souffi, N. and Bauer, G. H. and Main, C. and Reynolds, S. and Brueggemann, R.",
title = "Density of states in the gap of microcrystalline silicon determined from thermally-stimulated currents",
journal = "Thin Solid Films",
volume = 516,
number = 20,
pages = "6844-6847",
note = "Times Cited: 1 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 Symposium on Advanced Materials and Concepts for Photovoltaics held at the EMRS 2007Conferenc Jun, 2007 Strasbourg, FRANCE Euorpean Mat Res Soc 1",
year = 2008
}
BibTeX@article{HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON SCHOTTKY SOLAR-CELLS - THE EFFECTS OF CONTAMINATION BY DOPANTS IN THE UNDOPED LAYER,
author = "Thompson, R. F. and Hassan, Y. M. and Wilson, J. I. B.",
title = "HYDROGENATED AMORPHOUS-SILICON SCHOTTKY SOLAR-CELLS - THE EFFECTS OF CONTAMINATION BY DOPANTS IN THE UNDOPED LAYER",
journal = "Solar Cells",
volume = 10,
number = 2,
pages = "189-198",
note = "Times Cited: 5 5",
year = 1983
}
BibTeX@article{AMORPHOUS-SILICON MIS SOLAR-CELLS,
author = "Wilson, J. I. B. and McGill, J.",
title = "AMORPHOUS-SILICON MIS SOLAR-CELLS",
journal = "Iee Journal on Solid-State and Electron Devices",
volume = 2,
pages = "S7-S10",
note = "Times Cited: 2 Si 2",
year = 1978
}
BibTeX@article{AMORPHOUS SILICON MIS SOLAR-CELLS,
author = "Wilson, J. I. B. and McGill, J. and Kinmond, S.",
title = "AMORPHOUS SILICON MIS SOLAR-CELLS",
journal = "Nature",
volume = 272,
number = 5649,
pages = "152-153",
note = "Times Cited: 20 20",
year = 1978
}
BibTeX@article{RECENT PROGRESS IN THIN-FILM SOLAR-CELLS,
author = "Wilson, J. I. B. and McGill, J. and Weaire, D.",
title = "RECENT PROGRESS IN THIN-FILM SOLAR-CELLS",
journal = "Advances in Physics",
volume = 27,
number = 3,
pages = "365-385",
note = "Times Cited: 13 13",
year = 1978
}
BibTeX@article{PLASMA ENHANCED CVD OF MATERIALS FOR ENERGY CONVERTERS: NANO-SILICON FOR SOLAR CELLS AND NANO-DIAMOND FOR FUSION REACTORS,
author = "Wilson, J. I. B. and Porro, S. and John, P. and Villalpando, I. and Lind, H.",
title = "PLASMA ENHANCED CVD OF MATERIALS FOR ENERGY CONVERTERS: NANO-SILICON FOR SOLAR CELLS AND NANO-DIAMOND FOR FUSION REACTORS",
journal = "Romanian Journal of Physics",
volume = 56,
pages = "15-22",
note = "Times Cited: 0 S 15th International Conference on Plasma Physics and Applications Jul 01-04, 2010 Iasi, ROMANIA 0",
year = 2011
}
BibTeX@article{PROSPECTS FOR USE OF AMORPHOUS-SEMICONDUCTORS IN SOLAR-ENERGY CONVERSION,
author = "Wilson, J. I. B. and Weaire, D.",
title = "PROSPECTS FOR USE OF AMORPHOUS-SEMICONDUCTORS IN SOLAR-ENERGY CONVERSION",
journal = "Nature",
volume = 275,
number = 5676,
pages = "93-96",
note = "Times Cited: 6 6",
year = 1978
}
BibTeX@article{Carbon nanotube arrays for optical design of amorphous silicon solar cells,
author = "Zhou, Hang and Colli, Alan and Butler, Tim and Rupesinghe, Nalin and Mumtaz, Asim and Amaratunga, Gehan and Wilson, John I. B.",
title = "Carbon nanotube arrays for optical design of amorphous silicon solar cells",
journal = "International Journal of Material Forming",
volume = 1,
number = 2,
pages = "113-116",
note = "Times Cited: 1 1",
year = 2008
}
BibTeX@article{The influence of defects on response speed of high gain two-beam photogating in a-Si : H PIN structures,
author = "Zollondz, J. H. and Reynolds, S. and Main, C. and Smirnov, V. and Zrinscak, I.",
title = "The influence of defects on response speed of high gain two-beam photogating in a-Si : H PIN structures",
journal = "Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids",
volume = 299,
pages = "594-598",
note = "Times Cited: 1 Reynolds, Steve/A-1583-2009 A 19th International Conference on Amorphis and Microcrystalline Semiconductors (ICAMS 19) Aug 27-31, 2001 Old nice, france 1",
year = 2002
}
