Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) can provide exceptional surface passivation essential for high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells. This thesis reports on the fundamental study of a-SiC:H films deposited using a novel deposition technique, DC saddle field PECVD, in contrast to the conventional industrial use of RF-PECVD. The growth conditions were optimized and correlated with passivating, structural, and optical characteristics. The lifetime has a strong dependency on deposition temperature and improves by over two orders of magnitude as the temperature increases; the maximum lifetime achieved in this work reached 0.5 ms. In addition, the Tauc optical gap can be increased from 1.7 eV to 2.3 eV by varying the precursor gas mixture ratio. Post-deposition annealing experiments demonstrate thermal stability of the samples deposited at 250 °C and in some instances shows improvement in passivation quality by a factor of two with a one-step annealing treatment at 300 °C for 15 minutes.

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) can provide exceptional surface passivation essential for high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells. This thesis reports on the fundamental study of a-SiC:H films deposited using a novel deposition technique, DC saddle field PECVD, in contrast to the conventional industrial use of RF-PECVD. The growth conditions were optimized and correlated with passivating, structural, and optical characteristics. The lifetime has a strong dependency on deposition temperature and improves by over two orders of magnitude as the temperature increases; the maximum lifetime achieved in this work reached 0.5 ms. In addition, the Tauc optical gap can be increased from 1.7 eV to 2.3 eV by varying the precursor gas mixture ratio. Post-deposition annealing experiments demonstrate thermal stability of the samples deposited at 250 °C and in some instances shows improvement in passivation quality by a factor of two with a one-step annealing treatment at 300 °C for 15 minutes.

This thesis proposes and demonstrates a hydrogenated amorphous silicon passivated, inverted photovoltaic device on n-type silicon, utilizing a Laser Fired Emitter on a rear i-a- Si:H/SiOx dielectric stack. This novel low-temperature-fabricated device architecture constitutes the first demonstration of an LFE on a dielectric passivation stack. The optimization of the device is explored through Sentaurus computational modeling, predicting a potential efficiency of >20%. Proof of concept devices are fabricated using the DC Saddle Field PECVD system for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon passivation layers. Laser parameters are explored highlighting pulse energy density as a key performance determining factor. Annealing of devices in nitrogen atmosphere shows performance improvements albeit that the maximum annealing temperature is limited by the thermal stability of the passivation. A proof of concept device efficiency of 11.1% is realized forming the basis for further device optimization.

This thesis proposes and demonstrates a hydrogenated amorphous silicon passivated, inverted photovoltaic device on n-type silicon, utilizing a Laser Fired Emitter on a rear i-a- Si:H/SiOx dielectric stack. This novel low-temperature-fabricated device architecture constitutes the first demonstration of an LFE on a dielectric passivation stack. The optimization of the device is explored through Sentaurus computational modeling, predicting a potential efficiency of >20%. Proof of concept devices are fabricated using the DC Saddle Field PECVD system for the deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon passivation layers. Laser parameters are explored highlighting pulse energy density as a key performance determining factor. Annealing of devices in nitrogen atmosphere shows performance improvements albeit that the maximum annealing temperature is limited by the thermal stability of the passivation. A proof of concept device efficiency of 11.1% is realized forming the basis for further device optimization.