a-SiC:H films used as photoelectrodes in a hybrid, thin-film silicon photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell for progress toward 10% solar-to hydrogen efficiency

Feng Zhu; Jian Hu; Augusto Kunrath; Ilvydas Matulionis; Bjorn Marsen; Brian Cole; Eric Miller; Arun Madan

doi:10.1117/12.735014

11 September 2007 a-SiC:H films used as photoelectrodes in a hybrid, thin-film silicon photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell for progress toward 10% solar-to hydrogen efficiency

Feng Zhu, Jian Hu, Augusto Kunrath, Ilvydas Matulionis, Bjorn Marsen, Brian Cole, Eric Miller, Arun Madan

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 6650, Solar Hydrogen and Nanotechnology II; 66500S (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.735014
Event: Solar Energy + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

In this paper we describe the fabrication of amorphous SiC:H materials and using them as photoelectrodes in photoelectrochemical cells (PEC). With the increase of CH₄ flow (in SiH4 gas mixture) during growth, the bandgap, Eg, increases from ~ 1.8eV to ~2.0eV, while the photoconductivity decreases from ~10^-5 S/cm to ~10^-8 S/cm. These high-quality a-SiC:H materials with Eg of 2.0eV included into a solar cell configuration led to a conversion efficiency,η~7% on textured Asahi U type SnO₂ coated substrates, with the i-layer thickness of ~300nm. For a reduced i-layer thickness of ~100 nm, a current density, J_sc ~8.45mA/cm² has been achieved, Immersing the a-SiC:H(p)/a-SiC:H(i) structure in 0.33M H₃PO₄ electrolytes, produced a photocurrent of ~7mA/cm². With a further optimization we expect that the photocurrent could exceed 9mA/cm². With the use of this configuration substrate/silicon tandem device (a-Si/a-Si or a- Si/nc-Si)/a-SiC:H(p)/a-SiC:H(i), it may therefore be possible to increase the solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiencies to beyond 10%.

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Feng Zhu, Jian Hu, Augusto Kunrath, Ilvydas Matulionis, Bjorn Marsen, Brian Cole, Eric Miller, and Arun Madan "a-SiC:H films used as photoelectrodes in a hybrid, thin-film silicon photoelectrochemical (PEC) cell for progress toward 10% solar-to hydrogen efficiency", Proc. SPIE 6650, Solar Hydrogen and Nanotechnology II, 66500S (11 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.735014

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