Hole Selective MoO_<i>x</i> Contact for Silicon Solar Cells

TLDR

MoOx, often viewed as a 3.3‑eV semiconductor, actually behaves as a high‑workfunction metal with a low density of states at the Fermi level due to oxygen‑vacancy defect bands. An ultrathin (~15 nm) MoOx layer, with a measured work function of ~6.6 eV, functions as a transparent hole selective contact to n‑type silicon, producing a room‑temperature processed solar cell with 14.3 % efficiency and illustrating that nm‑thick transition‑metal oxides enable dopant‑free contacts for junctionless devices such as solar cells, LEDs, photodetectors, and transistors.

Abstract

Using an ultrathin (∼ 15 nm in thickness) molybdenum oxide (MoOx, x < 3) layer as a transparent hole selective contact to n-type silicon, we demonstrate a room-temperature processed oxide/silicon solar cell with a power conversion efficiency of 14.3%. While MoOx is commonly considered to be a semiconductor with a band gap of 3.3 eV, from X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy we show that MoOx may be considered to behave as a high workfunction metal with a low density of states at the Fermi level originating from the tail of an oxygen vacancy derived defect band located inside the band gap. Specifically, in the absence of carbon contamination, we measure a work function potential of ∼ 6.6 eV, which is significantly higher than that of all elemental metals. Our results on the archetypical semiconductor silicon demonstrate the use of nm-thick transition metal oxides as a simple and versatile pathway for dopant-free contacts to inorganic semiconductors. This work has important implications toward enabling a novel class of junctionless devices with applications for solar cells, light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, and transistors.