Investigation of the optoelectronic properties of μc-Si:H pin solar cells

Abstract We have investigated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) pin solar cells deposited at different silane concentrations in the gas phase varying from 2% to 7.2%. For these cells three features were found: the dark current of the cells decreased, the open circuit voltage increased and the blue response reduced with increasing silane concentration during deposition. To study the transport and recombination of these structures we have compared the experimentally determined optoelectronic properties with simulated data. The simulations reveal that the equilibrium carrier concentration of free carriers decreases and the affect of the nucleation region of the i-layer on the blue response increases with increasing silane concentration.