Thin film amorphous silicon solar cells, both in Schottky and PIN structures, have been fabricated by a glow discharge decomposition of silane, and the electronic and optical properties of these cells are investigated. The dependence of device performances on some of the parameters relating to the cell structure is described and the optimum values of these parameters determined.
The optical properties of boron doped a-SiC:H films prepared by the plasma decomposition of $SiH_4 + CH_4 + (B_2H_6)x$ gas mixtures have been investigated and the wide gap window effect of this material in heterojunction PIN cells has been experimentally verified. At the present stage of experiments, power conversion efficiencies of 7.5% and 4.3% have been obtained for the cells with areas of 1/35 ㎠and 1 ㎠, respectively, under illumination level of 9.5 mW/㎠.
