Electron-Conductive, Hole-Blocking Contact for Silicon Solar Cells

We present an electron-conductive, hole-blocking contact for silicon solar cell in this work. Quasi-metallic titanium nitride (TiN), deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering, is proven to be an effective electron-selective contact for silicon solar cell, simultaneously achieving a low contact resistivity (ρ
c
) of ~ 16 mΩ∙cm
²
and a tolerable contact recombination parameter (J
0c
) of ~ 500 fA/cm
²
. By the implementation of the dual-function SiO
2
/TiN contact, which acts simultaneously as efficient surface passivating and metal electrode, a power conversion efficiency of 20% is achieved on an n-type silicon solar cell with a simple structure. This work demonstrates a way to develop efficient n-type Si solar cells with dual-function metal nitride contacts at a low cost.