Dopant profile control of epitaxial emitter for silicon solar cells by low temperature epitaxy

We report an alternative approach to grow phosphorus-doped epitaxial silicon emitter by rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition at low temperature (T ≥ 700 °C). A power conversion efficiency (PCE) of (6.6 ± 0.3) and a pseudo PCE of (10.2 ± 0.2) has been achieved for the solar cell with epi-emitter grown at 700 C, in the absence of surface texturization, antireflective coating, and back surface field enhancement, without considering front contact shading. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy revealed that lower temperature silicon epitaxy yields a more abrupt p-n junction, suggesting potential applications for radial p-n junction wire array solar cells. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.