Using Boron Doped Amorphous Diamond Films as Window Layer of Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells

Boron doped amorphous diamond(a-D:B)films,which possess a wide optical gap and good p-type semi-conductive electroconductibility,were prepared using filtered cathodic vacuum arc system, whose target source was highly pure graphite incorporated with boron element.The intrinsic layer and the n-type layer of amorphous silicon solar ceils in a configuration of p-i-n were deposited using PECVD technology.The optical gap of the boron doped amorphous diamond films was characterized with a Lambda 950 UV-Vis photometer.The parameters of solar cells,such as open-circuit voltage,short- circuit current,fill factor and efficiency,were also measured.It shows that using the a-D:B films as the window layer of p-i-n structural amorphous silicon solar cell can increase the cell conversion efficiency by a roughly 10% relative improvement compared to the conventional amorphous silicon solar cell because of the enhancement of short wavelength response.