The influence of diffusion-induced dislocations on high efficiency silicon solar cells

Heavy boron and phosphorus diffusions are used in many high efficiency, monocrystalline silicon solar cell designs to form localized contact diffusions and back surface fields. It is important to cell performance that these diffusion processes do not increase bulk recombination by the introduction of lattice defects. This paper investigates the effect of boron and phosphorus misfit dislocation networks on the bulk recombination parameters, and performance of high efficiency silicon solar cells. It demonstrates that the formation of either a boron or phosphorus misfit dislocation network generates bulk asymmetric Shockley-Read-Hall recombination centers, and that these adversely affect the current-voltage curve, local ideality factor, and ultimately the performance of p-type silicon solar cells.