Significance of tunneling in $p+$ amorphous silicon carbide n crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells Available to Purchase

We used the internal photoemission (IPE) technique to accurately determine the valence and conduction band offsets at the $a-SiC:H/c-Si$ interface and investigated with numerical simulations their effects on the photocarrier collection in $p+$ $a-SiC:H/n c-Si$ heterojunction solar cells. The valence and conduction band discontinuities were found to be 0.60 and 0.55 eV, respectively. However, despite the large barrier at the valence band edge, 30 nm $p+ a-SiC:H/n c-Si$ heterojunction solar cells show no collection problems due to blocking of holes $(FF=0.73).$ Combined IPE measurements and simulation results indicate that tunneling of holes through this barrier at the valence band edge can explain the unhindered collection.