Low temperature deposition of boron-doped microcrystalline Si:H thin film and its application in silicon based thin film solar cells

Abstract Boron-doped hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon thin films (p-μc-Si:H) have been deposited by RF-PECVD method at different temperature, and the temperature dependence of growth kinetics and optoelectronic properties of p-μc-Si:H thin films have been studied. Both the deposition rate and the dark-conductivity of the p-μc-Si:H thin films drop down when the substrate temperature decreases. XRD and Raman measurements are used to characterize the micro-structure of p-μc-Si:H thin films prepared at different substrate temperature. Grain size of p-μc-Si:H thin films with different thickness as a function of substrate temperature has been investigated. Amorphous silicon thin film solar cells with p – i – n structures were fabricated on deposited boron doped μc-Si:H layers. The best cells performance is obtained for p-layers processed at 90 °C.