Properties of amorphous silicon solar cells fabricated from SiH2Cl2

Chlorinated intrinsic amorphous silicon films a-Si:H(Cl)] and solar cell i-layers were fabricated using electron cyclotron resonance-assisted chemical vapor deposition (ECR-CVD) and SiH₂Cl₂ source gas. n–i–p solar cells deposited on ZnO–coated SnO₂ substrates had poor photovoltaic performances despite the good electronic properties measured on the a-Si:H(Cl) films. Improved open–circuit voltage (V_oc) of 0.84 V and fill factor (FF) of 54% were observed in n–i–p solar cells by providing an n/i buffer layer and by using Ga-doped ZnO coated glass substrates. However, the FF improvement was still rather poor, which is thought to originate from high interface recombination in the ECR deposited solar cells. The V_oc and the FF showed much stable feature against light soaking.