Impact of carrier recombination on fill factor for large area heterojunction crystalline silicon solar cell with 25.1% efficiency

We have achieved a certified 25.1% conversion efficiency in a large area (151.9 cm2) heterojunction (HJ) crystalline Si (c-Si) solar cell with amorphous Si (a-Si) passivation layer. This efficiency is a world record in a both-side-contacted c-Si solar cell. Our high efficiency HJ c-Si solar cells are investigated from the standpoint of the effective minority carrier lifetime (τe), and the impact of τe on fill factor (FF) is discussed. The τe measurements of our high efficiency HJ c-Si solar cells reveal that τe at an injection level corresponding to an operation point of maximum power is dominated by the carrier recombination at the a-Si/c-Si interface. By optimization of the process conditions, the carrier recombination at the a-Si/c-Si interface is reduced, which leads to an improvement of the FF by an absolute value of 2.7%, and a conversion efficiency of 25.1% has been achieved. These results indicate that the reduction of carrier recombination centers at the a-Si/c-Si interface should be one of the most crucial issues for further improvement of FF even in the HJ c-Si solar cells with efficiency over 25%.