6533b7cffe1ef96bd1259970

RESEARCH PRODUCT

New process of silicon carbide purification intended for silicon passivation

Vincenzo AglieriH. EzzaouiaM. BarboucheMauro MoscaR. Benabderrahmane ZaghouaniK. KhirouniN.e. BenammarRoberto Macaluso

subject

Materials sciencePassivationSiliconAnnealing (metallurgy)chemistry.chemical_element02 engineering and technologySilicon carbideCondensed Matter Physic01 natural sciencesSettore ING-INF/01 - ElettronicaPulsed laser depositionPassivationchemistry.chemical_compoundMinority carrier lifetime0103 physical sciencesSilicon carbideImpuritieGeneral Materials ScienceThin filmElectrical and Electronic Engineering010302 applied physicsGetteringbusiness.industryICP-AESCarrier lifetime021001 nanoscience & nanotechnologyCondensed Matter PhysicschemistryOptoelectronicsMaterials Science (all)Inductively coupled plasma0210 nano-technologybusiness

description

Abstract In this work, we report on a new, efficient and low cost process of silicon carbide (SiC) powder purification intended to be used in photovoltaic applications. This process consists on the preparation of porous silicon carbide layers followed by a photo-thermal annealing under oxygen atmosphere and chemical treatment. The effect of etching time on impurities removal efficiency was studied. Inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) results showed that the best result was achieved for an etching time of 10 min followed by gettering at 900 °C during 1 h. SiC purity is improved from 3N (99.9771%) to 4N (99.9946%). Silicon carbide thin films were deposited onto silicon substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique (PLD) using purified SiC powder as target. Significant improvement of the minority carrier lifetime was obtained encouraging the use of SiC as a passivation layer for silicon.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2017-01-01
10.1016/j.spmi.2016.11.064http://hdl.handle.net/10447/231545