Impact of Pregrown SiO on the Carrier Selectivity and Thermal Stability of Molybdenum-Oxide-Passivated Contact for Si Solar Cells.

Thin SiO interlayers are often formed naturally during the deposition of transition metal oxides on silicon surfaces due to interfacial reaction. The SiO layer, often only several atomic layers thick, becomes the interface between the Si and deposited metal oxide and can therefore influence the electrical properties and thermal stability of the deposited stack. This work explores the potential benefits of controlling the properties of the SiO interlayer by the introduction of pregrown high-quality SiO which also inhibits the formation of low-quality SiO from the metal-oxide deposition process.

3D characterisation using plasma FIB-SEM: A large-area tomography technique for complex surfaces like black silicon.

This paper demonstrates an improved method to accurately extract the surface morphology of black silicon (BSi). The method is based on an automated Xe plasma focused ion beam (PFIB) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) tomography technique. A comprehensive new sample preparation method is described and shown to minimize the PFIB artifacts induced by both the top surface sample-PFIB interaction and the non-uniform material density.