%0 Journal Article %A Qiu, Depeng %A Duan, Weiyuan %A Lambertz, Andreas %A Eberst, Alexander %A Bittkau, Karsten %A Rau, Uwe %A Ding, Kaining %T Transparent Conductive Oxide Sputtering Damage on Contact Passivation in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells with Hydrogenated Nanocrystalline Silicon %J Solar RRL %V 6 %N 10 %@ 2367-198X %C Weinheim %I Wiley-VCH %M FZJ-2022-04511 %P 2200651 %D 2022 %X Mitigating the adverse effect of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) sputtering onthe passivation quality of the heterojunction contact is very critical for achievinghigh-efficiency silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells. Herein, n-type ultra-thin(5 nm) nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) is utilized as a contact layer in rear-junctionSHJ solar cells. It is revealed that the TCO sputtering damage on the contact layer iscaused by the ion bombardment during the sputtering process and cannot be fullyrecovered by low-temperature annealing. A more severe passivation deteriorationis observed for the devices with nc-Si:H(n) having a higher microstructure factor.This result is explained by an increased ion penetration depth in the porous nc-Si:Hfilm. By applying denser nc-Si:H(n) in SHJ solar cells, the front silicon film stackshows more resilience to sputter damage, yielding a remarkable cell performanceon the M2-size wafer with certificated power conversion efficiency (η) of 23.87%.The sputter damage on nc-Si:H by TCO in SHJ solar cells is explored in depth forthe first time from the perspective of silicon thin films. %F PUB:(DE-HGF)16 %9 Journal Article %U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000845082600001 %R 10.1002/solr.202200651 %U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/911205