Investigating Voltage as a Function of the Reduced Junction Area for Thin Silicon Solar Cells That Utilize Epitaxial Lateral Overgrowth

In this paper, we fabricate and analyze thin silicon solar cells that are designed to have an increased voltage due to reduced junction area. This reduced junction area is achieved by using epitaxial lateral overgrowth to grow an n-Si photon absorber on a p+ Si substrate. We measure and analyze the voltage of these solar cells as a function of the junction area but find that the voltage does not demonstrate the expected gain with the reduced area. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) cross sections indicate that the loss in voltage arises mainly from the poor quality of the lateral overgrowth region. Thus, future work will focus on improving this region's quality.