Effects of low-temperature annealing on polycrystalline silicon for solar cells

The polycrystalline silicon material grown by the edge-defined film-fed growth technique, and often used in solar cell production, is known to be carbon and dislocation rich. Aim of this work was to explore the effect of low-temperature annealing in vacuum on properties of these structural defects, often present in different solar-grade materials. Electrical measurements by deep level transient spectroscopy revealed the presence of the defects typically found in dislocated silicon. Detailed analysis further suggested that they are also carbon related, exhibiting quite unexpected behavior at such low-temperature annealing. Moreover, photoluminescence results showed electronhole droplet condensation at dislocations after such low-temperature annealing. This further supports the hypothesis that point defects are incorporated at dislocation cores rather than in a cloud at its proximity. © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.