A study of amorphous silicon-carbon alloy solar cells

Progress in optimizing deposition conditions has significantly improved the opto-electronic properties of intrinsic a-SiC:H alloys. These improvements have been incorporated in single junction p-i-n solar cells. Open circuit voltage V/sub oc/ as high as 1.04 V and fill factor (FF) as high as 0.75 have been demonstrated. The stability of these devices has also been remarkably improved. The best single junction solar cell with /spl sim/1000 A thick a-SiC:H i-layer shows only 13% degradation and retains V/sub oc/=0.98 V and FF=0.68 after 1700 hours of light-soaking under AM1.5 equivalent illumination.<>