Vanadium-based antireflection coated on multicrystalline silicon acting as a passivating layer

In this paper, we present important experimental results of a new efficient (ARC), leading to an efficient surface passivation that have not been reported before. Vanadium pentoxide V2O5 powder was thermally evaporated onto the front surface of mc-Si substrates, followed by a short annealing duration at 600 degrees C, 700 degrees C and 800 degrees C under an O-2 atmosphere. The chemical composition of the deposited vanadium oxide thin films was analyzed by means of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). Surface and cross-section morphology were determined by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The effect of the deposited thin film on the electrical properties was evaluated by means of the internal quantum efficiency (IQE), minority carrier lifetime measurements which have been made using a WTC-120 photoconductance lifetime tester and we used dark current voltage (I-V) characteristic to measure the defect density at a selected grain boundary (GB) in all samples and compared to an untreated wafer. The results show that the deposited thin film single layer gives the possibility of combining, in one processing step, an antireflection coating deposition along with efficient surface state passivation, as compared to a reference wafer. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.