Surface Passivation of Crystalline Silicon using Amorphous Silicon

The Suns light rays continuously strike the Earth's surface and could provide ten times the amount of electricity society consumes. This represents an untapped natural resource that is only now being harvested. Photovoltaics (solar cell) is the field that strives to develop this energy resource. Typical polysilicon (multi-crystalline) solar modules have efficiencies around 14%. To improve efficiencies and reduce costs the exploration of newstructures has been undertaken. High efficiency photovoltaic devices can be produced using a novel all silicon heterostructure. This book attempts to explore the passivation of the crystalline silicon (c-Si) surface with hydrogenated amorphous silicon films (a-Si:H). The critical parameter in determining the quality of passivation is the effective minority carrier lifetime of the c-Si/a-Si:H heterostructure. These lifetime measurements were performed with the novel, all optical, Photocarrier Radiometry (PCR) technique. This book is intended for those who are pursuing technological applications in c-Si/a-Si:H heterostructures, as well as to those in the PV field in dealing with surface passivation and lifetime measurements.