Moreover, as depicted in Figure 4a, the obvious variations in the absorption Vactosertib spectra of the P-doped Si-NCs/sc-Si films with various R c values could be observed at photon energies above 1.8 eV (approximately <700 nm), which shows good correspondence with the trends in the IQE data. Therefore,

it is speculated that the difference in J sc losses among the devices could be attributed to the parasitic absorption in the emitter layer. More photons in the visible spectrum would be absorbed with increasing volume fraction of the Si-NCs in the P-doped Si-NCs/sc-Si film, leading to the limitation in the available solar spectrum in the device, as well as PLX-4720 in vitro the degradation of the J sc. In contrast to the J sc, the FF decreases from 72.6% to 51.9% when increasing the R c value, as depicted in Figure 6. The series resistance (R s) of the Si heterojunction solar cell was extracted from the dark J-V characteristic and shown in Figure 9 as a function of the R c value. The fill factor of a solar cell depends upon the series resistance, saturation current density, Selleck RGFP966 and diode ideality factor. Here, the reduction

in FF with increasing R c value could be mainly attributed to an increase in R s since the values of J 0 and n are similar for all heterojunction solar cells, as shown in the inset of Figure 8. As depicted in Figure 9, the R s of the Si heterojunction

solar cell is highly correlated to the conductivity of the P-doped Si-NCs/sc-Si film. Thus, it could be speculated that the FF of the Si heterojunction solar cell strongly depends on the conductivity DOK2 of the P-doped Si-NCs/SiN x film. The maximum conversion efficiency is achieved from the device with N2/SiH4 ratio of 0.79 (shown in Figure 6), where the balance between J sc and FF losses is optimized. The best heterojunction solar cell has 8.6% conversion efficiency, with a V oc of 500 mV, J sc of 26.5 mA/cm2, and 65.2% in fill factor. While the data obtained is based on our preliminary fabrication of Si-NCs/sc-Si heterojunction cells, further improvement in fabrication of Si-NC emitters (layer thickness, deposition and doping conditions, etc.) and related process parameters is likely to improve the photovoltaic efficiency. Figure 9 Series resistance and electrical conductivity as a function of the R c value. Conclusions In this report, we have investigated the feasibility of using P-doped Si-NCs/SiN x films as emitters on p-type sc-Si substrates for fabrication of Si-based heterojunction solar cells.