Enhancing dielectric-silicon interfaces through surface electric fields during firing

Minimising charge losses at silicon interfaces is a major development area for highly efficient solar cells. Here we report on the interface improvements achieved by establishing a surface electric field during low-temperature firing of dielectric thin films. By inducing a corona electric field on the surface of a thin film stack, we observe significant modifications to the silicon-dielectric interface upon annealing, which correlate with the characteristics of interface defects. The passivation properties of the interfaces strongly depend on the polarity and strength of the electric field during firing, as well as the dielectric materials in the layer stack. We show that the surface electric fields not only influence surface carrier population but also affect the resulting chemical interface properties post-annealing. It is postulated that hydrogen migration plays a role in these observed effects. Leveraging the corona-induced electric field enables fine-tuning of both the chemical and field-effect passivation in thin film surface dielectrics, resulting in recombination current densities as low as 2.8 fA cm−2 in research-grade float zone silicon, and 14 fA cm−2 in industrial-grade textured silicon. The simplicity and versatility of the thin film electric polarisation enable a new strategy for controlling and exploiting the chemical enhancement of interfaces in solar cell devices, from current TOPCon and PERC devices to future multijunction silicon-based cells.