| ilicon Carbide/Silicon/Silicon (SiC/Si/Si) (N-n-p) heteroface solar cells are designed, fabricated, and evaluated. In these solar cells the top SiC layer, which is transparent to most of the solar spectrum, yields a low lateral resistance and passivates the surface of the n-Si layer.;Processes are developed to fabricate SiC/Si heterostructure solar cells. SiC films are grown on (100) Si substrates using an Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (APCVD) technique. Hydrogen, Silane (SiH;Optical studies show that the absorption coefficient of ;APCVD grown films in the 1150;A computer analysis of the heterostructure and homojunction Si solar cells, based on the drift-diffusion model, is carried out. It is noted that employing a SiC layer as a top window material in Si-based solar cells reduces the series resistance of the cell and increases the efficiency. Also, the light generated current in the SiC/Si cells does not decrease appreciably with increasing thickness of the top SiC layer. In contrast, in Si/Si cells the current reduces significantly with increasing thickness of the top Si layer.;The Si-based heterostructure solar cells (with... |
