Deposition of high-efficiency microcrystalline silicon solar cells using SiF₄/H₂/Ar mixtures

In this paper, we present results on microcrystalline silicon solar cells that are deposited from SiF₄/H₂/Ar mixtures, on which efficiencies exceeding 9% have already been obtained. Structural characterizations of the cells indicate a fully crystalline material with no preferential crystallographic orientation. This suggests that, as opposed to microcrystalline silicon cells deposited using silane, an amorphous phase is not required to passivate defects at column boundaries. These results are discussed in light of the specific growth mechanism and structural properties associated with film deposition using SiF₄. They pave the way toward low-cost, high-performance polycrystalline cells on glass.