Molybdenum oxide hole selective transport layer by hot wire oxidation-sublimation deposition for silicon heterojunction solar cells

In this article, a novel hot wire oxidation-sublimation deposition (HWOSD) technique was developed to prepare molybdenum oxide (MoOx) thin films with high quality. Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells with the HWOSD MoOx as a hole selective transport layer (HSL) were fabricated. Thickness of the MoOx layer and annealing process of the solar cells were studied and optimized. A power conversion efficiency up to 21.10% was achieved on a SHJ solar cell using a 14nm MoOx layer as the HSL. Dark current density-voltage-temperature (J-V-T) characteristics of the SHJ solar cell were measured at the temperatures from 200K to 380K. Transport processes including thermionic emission of electrons over the potential barrier and quantum assisted tunneling of holes through the gap states in the MoOx layer were proposed for the MoOx/n c-Si heterojunction. The investigation of the transport mechanisms provides us a better understanding of the characteristics of the novel SHJ solar cells and it is helpful for us to fully demonstrate the potential of such kind of solar cells in the future.