Effective silicon surface passivation by atomic layer deposited Al2O3/TiO2 stacks

In this work atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 and TiO2 has been used to obtain dielectric stacks for passivation of silicon surfaces. Our experiments on n- and p-type silicon wafers deposited by thin Al2O3/TiO2 stacks show that a considerably improved passivation is obtained compared to the Al2O3 single layer. For Al2O3 films thinner than 20 nm the emitter saturation current density decreases with increasing TiO2 thickness. Especially the passivation of ultrathin (∼5 nm) Al2O3 is very effectively enhanced by TiO2 due to a decreased interface defect density as well as an increased fixed negative charge in the stacks. Hence, the thin Al2O3/TiO2 stacks developed in this work can be used as a passivation coating for Si-based solar cells. (© 2014 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)