Passivation studies with hydrogenated boron emitters

The Hydrogen Selective Emitter (HSE) is a self-aligned selective emitter for n-type silicon solar cells. In this study, Quinhydrone-methanol passivation is applied to hydrogenated boron emitters to extract emitter saturation current density (J_0e) data using photoconductance lifetime measurements. Etch-back studies are performed to extract J_0e vs. Rsh curves of counterpart boron emitters (hydrogenated and non-hydrogenated). It is shown that a hydrogenated boron emitter can suppress Auger recombination over a standard boron emitter and thus lead to efficiency enhancement for solar cells.