Novel photochemical vapor deposition reactor for amorphous silicon solar cell deposition

Abstract

A novel photochemical vapor deposition (photo-CVD) reactor having a flexible ultraviolet-transparent Teflon curtain and a secondary gas flow to eliminate deposition on the window has been used to deposit amorphous silicon films and p-i-n solar cells. The background levels of atmospheric contaminants (H2O, CO2, N2) depend strongly on the vacuum procedures but not on the presence of a Teflon curtain in the reactor. Intrinsic films with a midgap density of states of 3×1015 eV−1 cm−3 and all-photo-CVD pin solar cells with efficiencies of 8.5% have been deposited.