Issue |
EPL
Volume 106, Number 6, June 2014
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 66003 | |
Number of page(s) | 6 | |
Section | Condensed Matter: Structural, Mechanical and Thermal Properties | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/106/66003 | |
Published online | 25 June 2014 |
Functionality of thermally hydrogen-passivated interfaces of oxidized crystalline arrays of Si nanowires on (100)Si
1 Department of Physics and Astronomy, KU Leuven - Celestijnenlaan 200D, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
2 imec - Kapeldreef 75, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
(a) andre.stesmans@fys.kuleuven.be (corresponding
author)
Received: 30 September 2013
Accepted: 25 May 2014
Electron spin resonance studies have been performed on arrays of single-crystalline Si nanowires (NWs), 375 nm long and of top diameter of about 5 nm, fabricated on (100)Si by top-down etching and final thinning by thermal oxidation in dry O2/N2 at . The SiO2/SiNW interfaces, showing a density of inherent electrically detrimental defects substantially exceeding that of standard technological (100)Si/SiO2, are of inferior electrical quality. An extensive study of the passivation kinetics in H2 and forming gas ambient reveals that, even under optimized conditions, the defect system cannot be inactivated to device grade (at best, improvement in H2), due to the excessive interface stress as exposed by the enhanced spread in activation energy for hydrogen passivation kinetics. The data reveal the inability, of intrinsic nature, to sufficiently suppress defects, preventing to reach device-grade functioning of solar cells using single-crystalline NW arrays on (100)Si in the current state of manufacturing.
PACS: 68.35.bg – Semiconductors / 81.07.Gf – Nanowires / 88.40.jj – Silicon solar cells
© EPLA, 2014
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.