Exceeding 3 ms Minority Carrier Lifetime in n–type Non-contact Crucible Silicon
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Author(s)
Kivambe, Maulid
Powell, Douglas M.
Nakajima, Kazuo
Morishita, Kohei
Murai, Ryota
Castellanos, Sergio
Jensen, Mallory Ann
Buonassisi, Anthony
Date Issued
September 2016
Journal
Energy Procedia
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Castellanos, Sergio et al.“Exceeding 3 Ms Minority Carrier Lifetime in N–type Non-Contact Crucible Silicon.” Energy Procedia 92 (August 2016): 779–784 © 2016 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The presence of metal impurities and their interactions with structural defects (e.g., dislocations) are deleterious to the performance of Si-based solar cell devices. To achieve higher minority carrier lifetimes that translate into higher solar cell efficiencies, novel growth methods with low dislocation densities and reduced metal impurity concentrations have recently been developed. These methods simultaneously aim to achieve low capital expense (capex), necessary to ensure rapid industry scaling. Monocrystalline Si grown by the non-contact crucible method (NOC-Si) has the potential to achieve high bulk minority carrier lifetimes and high efficiencies at low cost given its low structural defect density. Growth in large-diameter crucibles ensures high throughput consistent with low capex. However, high temperatures, coupled with conditions during Si growth (e.g., crucible and ambient gas) can lead to the in-diffusion of impurities, compromising the potential to achieve high efficiency solar cell devices. Herein, we report high minority-carrier lifetimes exceeding 3 milliseconds (ms) in n-type NOC-Si material, achieved through a strict impurity-control procedure at the growth stage that prevents in-diffusion of impurities to the melt, coupled with a tailored defect-engineering process via optimized phosphorus gettering. Keywords: defects; impurities; minority-carrier lifetime; non-contact crucible; top-seeded solution growth; silicon; solar cells
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EGYPRO.2016.07.068
