High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects
In recent years, high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HPMC-Si) has emerged as an attractive alternative to traditional ingot-based multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si), with a similar cost structure but improved cell performance. Herein, we evaluate the gettering response of traditional mc-Si and...
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| Format: | Article |
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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
2018
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118926 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3935-6701 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5353-0780 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9352-8741 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4040-6705 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8345-4937 |
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| author | Ekstrom, Kai E. Autruffe, Antoine Lai, Barry Stokkan, Gaute del Canizo, Carlos Castellanos, Sergio Jensen, Mallory Ann Morishige, Ashley Elizabeth Hofstetter, Jasmin Yen, Patricia Buonassisi, Anthony |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Ekstrom, Kai E. Autruffe, Antoine Lai, Barry Stokkan, Gaute del Canizo, Carlos Castellanos, Sergio Jensen, Mallory Ann Morishige, Ashley Elizabeth Hofstetter, Jasmin Yen, Patricia Buonassisi, Anthony |
| author_sort | Ekstrom, Kai E. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | In recent years, high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HPMC-Si) has emerged as an attractive alternative to traditional ingot-based multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si), with a similar cost structure but improved cell performance. Herein, we evaluate the gettering response of traditional mc-Si and HPMC-Si. Microanalytical techniques demonstrate that HPMC-Si and mc-Si share similar lifetime-limiting defect types but have different relative concentrations and distributions. HPMC-Si shows a substantial lifetime improvement after P-gettering compared with mc-Si, chiefly because of lower area fraction of dislocation-rich clusters. In both materials, the dislocation clusters and grain boundaries were associated with relatively higher interstitial iron point-defect concentrations after diffusion, which is suggestive of dissolving metal-impurity precipitates. The relatively fewer dislocation clusters in HPMC-Si are shown to exhibit similar characteristics to those found in mc-Si. Given similar governing principles, a proxy to determine relative recombination activity of dislocation clusters developed for mc-Si is successfully transferred to HPMC-Si. The lifetime in the remainder of HPMC-Si material is found to be limited by grain-boundary recombination. To reduce the recombination activity of grain boundaries in HPMC-Si, coordinated impurity control during growth, gettering, and passivation must be developed. Keywords: Defects; dislocation recombination activity; dislocations; eccentricity variation; high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HPMC-Si); minority-carrier lifetime; photovoltaics; recombination; synchrotron |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:37:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/118926 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T13:37:54Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1189262022-10-01T16:10:29Z High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects Ekstrom, Kai E. Autruffe, Antoine Lai, Barry Stokkan, Gaute del Canizo, Carlos Castellanos, Sergio Jensen, Mallory Ann Morishige, Ashley Elizabeth Hofstetter, Jasmin Yen, Patricia Buonassisi, Anthony Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering Castellanos, Sergio Jensen, Mallory Ann Morishige, Ashley Elizabeth Hofstetter, Jasmin Yen, Patricia Buonassisi, Anthony In recent years, high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HPMC-Si) has emerged as an attractive alternative to traditional ingot-based multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si), with a similar cost structure but improved cell performance. Herein, we evaluate the gettering response of traditional mc-Si and HPMC-Si. Microanalytical techniques demonstrate that HPMC-Si and mc-Si share similar lifetime-limiting defect types but have different relative concentrations and distributions. HPMC-Si shows a substantial lifetime improvement after P-gettering compared with mc-Si, chiefly because of lower area fraction of dislocation-rich clusters. In both materials, the dislocation clusters and grain boundaries were associated with relatively higher interstitial iron point-defect concentrations after diffusion, which is suggestive of dissolving metal-impurity precipitates. The relatively fewer dislocation clusters in HPMC-Si are shown to exhibit similar characteristics to those found in mc-Si. Given similar governing principles, a proxy to determine relative recombination activity of dislocation clusters developed for mc-Si is successfully transferred to HPMC-Si. The lifetime in the remainder of HPMC-Si material is found to be limited by grain-boundary recombination. To reduce the recombination activity of grain boundaries in HPMC-Si, coordinated impurity control during growth, gettering, and passivation must be developed. Keywords: Defects; dislocation recombination activity; dislocations; eccentricity variation; high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HPMC-Si); minority-carrier lifetime; photovoltaics; recombination; synchrotron United States. Department of Energy (Contract EEC-1041895) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Contract EEC-1041895) 2018-11-06T18:04:09Z 2018-11-06T18:04:09Z 2016-04 2016-02 2018-11-01T14:40:35Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2156-3381 2156-3403 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118926 Castellanos, Sergio et al. “High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects.” IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics 6, 3 (May 2016): 632–640 © 2016 IEEE https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3935-6701 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5353-0780 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9352-8741 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4040-6705 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8345-4937 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2016.2540246 IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Other repository |
| spellingShingle | Ekstrom, Kai E. Autruffe, Antoine Lai, Barry Stokkan, Gaute del Canizo, Carlos Castellanos, Sergio Jensen, Mallory Ann Morishige, Ashley Elizabeth Hofstetter, Jasmin Yen, Patricia Buonassisi, Anthony High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects |
| title | High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects |
| title_full | High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects |
| title_fullStr | High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects |
| title_full_unstemmed | High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects |
| title_short | High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects |
| title_sort | high performance and traditional multicrystalline silicon comparing gettering responses and lifetime limiting defects |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118926 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3935-6701 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5353-0780 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9352-8741 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4040-6705 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8345-4937 |
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