1. Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Tianjin, Engineering Research Center of Thin Film Photoelectronic Technology, Institute of Photoelectronic Thin Film Devices and Technology of Nankai University (Ministry of Education), Tianjin 300350, China 2. Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
Based on its band alignment, p-type nickel oxide (NiOx) is an excellent candidate material for hole transport layers in crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells, as it has a small ΔEV and large ΔEC with crystalline silicon. Herein, to overcome the poor hole selectivity of stoichiometric NiOx due to its low carrier concentration and conductivity, silver-doped nickel oxide (NiOx:Ag) hole transport layers with high carrier concentrations were prepared by co-sputtering high-purity silver sheets and pure NiOx targets. The improved electrical conductivity of NiOx was attributed to the holes generated by the Ag+ substituents for Ni2+, and moreover, the introduction of Ag+ also increased the amount of Ni3+ present, both of which increased the carrier concentration in NiOx. Ag+ doping also reduced the c-Si/NiOx contact resistivity and improved the hole-selective contact with NiOx. Furthermore, the problems of particle clusters and interfacial defects on the surfaces of NiOx:Ag films were solved by UV-ozone oxidation and high-temperature annealing, which facilitated separation and transport of carriers at the c-Si/NiOx interface. The constructed c-Si/NiOx:Ag solar cell exhibited an increase in open-circuit voltage from 490 to 596 mV and achieved a conversion efficiency of 14.4%.
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L Li , L Ying , Y Lin , X Li , X Zhou , G Du , Y Gao , W Liu , L Lu , J Wang . et al.. Effective hydrogenation strategies to boost efficiency over 20% for crystalline silicon solar cell with Al2O3/Cu2O passivating contact. Advanced Functional Materials, 2022, 32(43): 2207158 https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202207158
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L Li , G Du , Y Lin , X Zhou , Z Gu , L Lu , W Liu , J Huang , J Wang , L Yang . et al.. NiOx/MoOx bilayer as an efficient hole-selective contact in crystalline silicon solar cells. Cell Reports. Physical Science, 2021, 2(12): 100684 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100684
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A H T Le , J Dréon , J I Michel , M Boccard , J Bullock , N Borojevic , Z Hameiri . Temperature-dependent performance of silicon heterojunction solar cells with transition-metal-oxide-based selective contacts. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, 2022, 30(8): 981–993 https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3509
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C Lu , A B Rusli , H Prakoso . Hole selective WOx and V2Ox contacts using solution process for silicon solar cells application. Materials Chemistry and Physics, 2021, 273: 125101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2021.125101
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Z Liu , W Lin , Z Chen , D Chen , Y Chen , H Shen , Z Liang . Enhanced hole extraction of WOx/V2Ox dopant-free contact for p-type silicon solar cell. Advanced Materials Interfaces, 2022, 9(10): 2102374 https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.202102374
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X Yang , H Xu , W Liu , Q Bi , L Xu , J Kang , M N Hedhili , B Sun , X Zhang , S De Wolf . Atomic layer deposition of vanadium oxide as hole-selective contact for crystalline silicon solar cells. Advanced Electronic Materials, 2020, 6(8): 2000467 https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.202000467
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X Yang , W Liu , J Chen , Y Sun . On the annealing-induced enhancement of the interface properties of NiO:Cu/wet-SiOx/n-Si tunnelling junction solar cells. Applied Physics Letters, 2018, 112(17): 173904 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5026135
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F Wang , H Duan , X Li , S Yang , D Han , L Yang , L Fan , H Liu , J Yang , F Rosei . Gradient doped nickel oxide hole selective heterocontact and ultrathin passivation for silicon photovoltaics with efficiencies beyond 20%. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2022, 450: 138060 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.138060
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Y Liu , J Zhu , L Cai , Z Yao , C Duan , Z Zhao , C Zhao , W Mai . Solution-processed high-quality Cu2O thin films as hole transport layers for pushing the conversion efficiency limit of Cu2O/Si heterojunction solar cells. Solar RRL, 2020, 4(1): 1900339 https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.201900339
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L Pan , C Liu , H Zhu , M Wan , Y Li , Y Mai . Fine modification of reactively sputtered NiOx hole transport layer for application in all-inorganic CsPbI2Br perovskite solar cells. Solar Energy, 2020, 196: 521–529 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2019.12.056
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M Du , S Zhao , L Duan , Y Cao , H Wang , Y Sun , L Wang , X Zhu , J Feng , L Liu . et al.. Surface redox engineering of vacuum-deposited NiOx for top-performance perovskite solar cells and modules. Joule, 2022, 6(8): 1931–1943 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2022.06.026
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L Li , X Zhang , H Zeng , X Zheng , Y Zhao , Y Luo , F Liu , X Li . Thermally-stable and highly-efficient bi-layered NiOx-based inverted planar perovskite solar cells by employing a p-type organic semiconductor. Chemical Engineering Journal, 2022, 443: 136405 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2022.136405
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D Chen , Z Liu , M Zhou , P Wu , J Wei . Enhanced photoelectrochemical water splitting performance of α-Fe2O3 nanostructures modified with Sb2S3 and cobalt phosphate. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2018, 742: 918–927 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2018.01.334
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W Zhang , H Shen , M Yin , L Lu , B Xu , D Li . Heterostructure silicon solar cells with enhanced power conversion efficiency based on SiOx/Ni3+ self-doped NiOx passivating contact. ACS Omega, 2022, 7(19): 16494–16501 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.2c00496
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