Effect of hydrogen plasma treatment on the passivation performance of TiO x on crystalline silicon prepared by atomic layer deposition

Abstract

The authors report on the effect of hydrogen plasma treatment (HPT) on the passivation performance of titanium oxide (TiOx) on crystalline silicon (c-Si) fabricated by atomic layer deposition. Recently, TiOx has gathered attention as an electron-selective contact material for silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells due to its preferable work function and band lineup. Moreover, TiOx has excellent light transmission properties due to its large bandgap energy. In order to improve the power conversion efficiency of SHJ solar cells with TiOx, it is necessary to enhance the passivation performance. The effective carrier lifetime representing the passivation performance is enhanced by HPT and amounts to 407.2 μs after HPT at 200 °C for 1 min. This value is twice as high as after forming gas annealing, which is the standard method to enhance the passivation performance of TiOx/c-Si heterostructures. Nuclear reaction analysis clarifies that the hydrogen concentration (CH) at the TiOx/c-Si interface of the HPT-processed sample is higher than that of an as-deposited sample and that the peak position of the CH distribution is shifted closer to the TiOx/c-Si heterointerface after HPT. Moreover, thermal desorption spectroscopy shows that Si–H and Si–H2 hydrogen bonds increase with HPT. These results indicate that the atomic hydrogen produced by the hydrogen plasma diffuses toward the TiOx/c-Si interface and terminate the local dangling bonds, which is responsible for the improved passivation performance.