Al-Amin, Mohammad and Murphy, John D. (2017) Passivation effects on low-temperature gettering in multicrystalline silicon. IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 7 (1). pp. 68-77. ISSN 2156-3381.

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Abstract

Annealing at ≤ 500 °C changes minority carrier lifetime in as-grown multicrystalline silicon substantially. Part of the change arises from internal gettering of impurities, but surface passivation for lifetime measurement results in additional effects. We report experiments that aim to clarify the role of passivation. Long-term annealing (up to 60 h) is performed on silicon nitride passivated multicrystalline silicon, and lifetime and interstitial iron concentrations are monitored at each processing stage. Lifetime in all samples is improved under certain conditions, with improvements always achieved at 400 °C. Increases are pronounced in low-lifetime bottom samples, with improvement by a factor of 2.7 at 400 °C or 3.8 at 500 °C. Important differences are found compared with our previous study with iodine–ethanol passivation. First, as-received lifetime is higher with silicon nitride not due to a substantial difference in surface recombination. Second, while interstitial iron concentrations often initially increase with iodine–ethanol, they tend to reduce with silicon nitride. Third, lifetime in high-lifetime samples reduces substantially with iodine–ethanol but increases with silicon nitride. Secondary ion mass spectrometry reveals high iron concentrations in annealed silicon nitride. Results are discussed in terms of gettering of impurities to, and bulk passivation arising from, silicon nitride films.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	T Technology > TP Chemical technology
Divisions:	Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Engineering > Engineering
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Silicon, Annealing of crystals, Iron
Journal or Publication Title:	IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics
Publisher:	IEEE
ISSN:	2156-3381
Official Date:	January 2017
Dates:	Date Event January 2017 Published 14 November 2016 Available 10 October 2016 Accepted
Volume:	7
Number:	1
Page Range:	pp. 68-77
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit:	28 October 2016
Date of first compliant Open Access:	15 November 2016
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:	Project/Grant ID RIOXX Funder Name Funder ID EP/J01768X/2 [EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266 EP/M024911/1 [EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266 EP/P511079/1 [EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266 RG100076 Royal Society http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000288
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