High-deposition rate a-Si:H n–i–p solar cells grown by HWCVD

Abstract We grow hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells in a device structure denoted as SS/n–i–p/ITO. We grow all the a-Si:H layers by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD) and the indium-tin-oxide (ITO) by reactive evaporation. We are able to grow HWCVD i-layer materials that maintain an AM1.5 photoconductivity-to-dark-conductivity ratio of 105 at deposition rates up to 130 A/s. We have put these high-deposition rate i-layer materials into SS/n–i–p/ITO devices and light-soaked them for ≥1000 h under AM1.5 conditions. We obtain stabilized solar cell efficiencies of 5.5% at 18 A/s, 4.8% at 35 A/s, 4.1% at 83 A/s and 3.8% at 127 A/s.