Aluminium-induced crystallisation of silicon on glass for thin-film solar cells

Aluminium-induced crystallisation of amorphous silicon is studied for the f ormation of continuous polycrystalline silicon thin-films on low-temperatur e glass substrates. It is shown to be a promising alternative to laser crys tallisation and solid-phase crystallisation. Silicon grain sizes of larger than 10 mum are achieved at temperatures of around 475 degreesC within anne aling times as short as 1 h. The Al doping concentration of the poly-Si fil ms depends on the annealing temperature, as revealed by Hall effect measure ments. A poly-Si/Al/glass structure presented here can serve as a seeding l ayer for the epitaxial growth of polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar ce lls, or possibly as the base material with the back contact incorporated. ( C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.