Si Passivation and Chemical Vapor Deposition of Silicon Nitride: Final Technical Report, March 18, 2007

This report investigated chemical and physical methods for Si surface passivation for application in crystalline Si and thin Si film photovoltaic devices. Overall, our efforts during the project were focused in three areas: i) synthesis of silicon nitride thin films with high hydrogen content by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition; ii) investigation of the role of hydrogen passivation of defectsin crystalline Si and Si solar cells by out diffusion from hydrogenated silicon nitride films; iii) investigation of the growth kinetics and passivation of hydrogenated polycrystalline. Silicon nitride films were grown by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition and film properties have been characterized as a function of SiH4/NH3 flow ratio. It was demonstrated that hot-wire chemical vapor depositionleads to growth of SiNx films with controllable stoichiometry and hydrogen.