title: Aluminium alloyed iron-silicide/silicon solar cells: A simple approach for low cost environmental-friendly photovoltaic technology.
abstract: This work demonstrates the fabrication of silicide/silicon based solar cell towards the development of low cost and environmental friendly photovoltaic technology. A heterostructure solar cells using metallic alpha phase (α-phase) aluminum alloyed iron silicide (FeSi(Al)) on n-type silicon is fabricated with an efficiency of 0.8%. The fabricated device has an open circuit voltage and fill-factor of 240 mV and 60%, respectively. Performance of the device was improved by about 7 fold to 5.1% through the interface engineering. The α-phase FeSi(Al)/silicon solar cell devices have promising photovoltaic characteristic with an open circuit voltage, short-circuit current and a fill factor (FF) of 425 mV, 18.5 mA/cm(2), and 64%, respectively. The significant improvement of α-phase FeSi(Al)/n-Si solar cells is due to the formation p(+-)n homojunction through the formation of re-grown crystalline silicon layer (~5-10 nm) at the silicide/silicon interface. Thickness of the regrown silicon layer is crucial for the silicide/silicon based photovoltaic devices. Performance of the α-FeSi(Al)/n-Si solar cells significantly depends on the thickness of α-FeSi(Al) layer and process temperature during the device fabrication. This study will open up new opportunities for the Si based photovoltaic technology using a simple, sustainable, and los cost method.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602.
authors.forename: Goutam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kumar Dalapati
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602.
authors.forename: Saeid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Masudy-Panah
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602.
authors.forename: Avishek
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602.
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cheh Tan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ru Tan
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR (Agency for Science, Technology and Research), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602.
authors.forename: Dongzhi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chi