Effects of emitter parameters and recombination mechanisms on the performance of β-FeSi2/c-Si heterojunction solar cells

In this paper, numerical simulations on the performance of p-type beta-FeSi2 emitter/n-type crystalline Si base heterojunction solar cells are carried out using PC1D software. The dependences of performance on layer thickness and doping concentration in the emitter region are analyzed. The influences of main recombination mechanisms in the emitter region for cell characterization are discussed. The simulation results show that both emitter thickness and doping concentration have very important influences on the property of beta-FeSi2/c-Si heterojunction solar cells. These two parameters need to be jointly selected to improve cell performance. The optimal values of emitter thickness and doping concentration are 350 nm and 2 x 10(17) cm(-3) for the cell structure, respectively. Moreover, cell efficiency can be enhanced by suppressing carrier recombination rate. Bulk and surface recombinations must be minimized by improving the material growth and surface passivation process, and the Auger and radiative recombination can be suppressed by reducing carrier concentrations appropriately. With the emitter parameter optimized, device performance can be well improved. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.