Significance of tunneling in p+ amorphous silicon carbide <i>n</i> crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

Abstract

We used the internal photoemission (IPE) technique to accurately determine the valence and conduction band offsets at the a-SiC:H/c-Si interface and investigated with numerical simulations their effects on the photocarrier collection in p+ a-SiC:H/n c-Si heterojunction solar cells. The valence and conduction band discontinuities were found to be 0.60 and 0.55 eV, respectively. However, despite the large barrier at the valence band edge, 30 nm p+ a-SiC:H/n c-Si heterojunction solar cells show no collection problems due to blocking of holes (FF=0.73). Combined IPE measurements and simulation results indicate that tunneling of holes through this barrier at the valence band edge can explain the unhindered collection.