Highly transparent microcrystalline silicon carbide grown with hot wire chemical vapor deposition as window layers in n-i-p microcrystalline silicon solar cells

Microcrystalline silicon carbide (mu c-SiC) films were prepared using hot wire chemical vapor deposition at low substrate temperature. The mu c-SiC films were employed as window layers in microcrystalline silicon (mu c-Si:H) n-i-p solar cells. Quantum efficiency (QE) and short circuit current density (J(SC)) in these n-side illuminated n-i-p cells were significantly higher than in standard p-i-n cells. A high QE current density of 26.7 mA/cm(2) was achieved in an absorber layer thickness of 2 mu m. The enhanced J(SC) was attributed to the wide band gap of the mu c-SiC layer and a sufficiently high hole drift mobility in mu c-Si:H absorber layer. (C) 2007 American Institute of Physics.