Characterization of thickness dependence on defect density and hydrogen passivation for thin film polycrystalline silicon solar cells

Thickness dependence on defect density and hydrogen passivation for thin film polycrystalline silicon solar cells fabricated by the zone-melting recrystallization (ZMR) technique are experimentally investigated. We confirmed that thinning of the active layer is available for increasing Voc for the cells with relatively high defect density (1/spl times/10/sup 6/-1/spl times/10/sup 7/ cm/sup -2/). At the same time, it was clarified that the effectiveness of hydrogen passivation is strongly dependent on the total amount of 3-dimensionally distributed defect in the active layer. Light-induced degradation phenomenon of hydrogen passivated cells was also investigated under the conditions of AM1.5, 125 mW/cm/sup 2/, and 48/spl deg/C. Significant degradation was not observed over 300 hours such as in hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells.