Nature Communications (Sep 2024)

Highly passivated TOPCon bottom cells for perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells

  • Zetao Ding,
  • Chenxia Kan,
  • Shengguo Jiang,
  • Meili Zhang,
  • Hongyu Zhang,
  • Wei Liu,
  • Mingdun Liao,
  • Zhenhai Yang,
  • Pengjie Hang,
  • Yuheng Zeng,
  • Xuegong Yu,
  • Jichun Ye

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-52309-2
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Tunnel oxide passivated contact (TOPCon) silicon solar cells are rising as a competitive photovoltaic technology, seamlessly blending high efficiency with cost-effectiveness and mass production capabilities. However, the numerous defects from the fragile silicon oxide/c-Si interface and the low field-effect passivation due to the inadequate boron in-diffusion in p-type polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) passivated contact reduce their open-circuit voltages (V OCs), impeding their widespread application in the promising perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells (TSCs) that hold a potential to break 30% module efficiency. To address this, we have developed a highly passivated p-type TOPCon structure by optimizing the oxidation conditions, boron in-diffusion, and aluminium oxide hydrogenation, thus pronouncedly improving the implied V OC (iV OC) of symmetric samples with p-type TOPCon structures on both sides to 715 mV and the V OC of completed double-sided TOPCon bottom cells to 710 mV. Consequently, integrating with perovskite top cells, our proof of concept of 1 cm2 n-i-p perovskite/silicon TSCs exhibit V OCs exceeding 1.9 V and a high efficiency of 28.20% (certified 27.3%), which paves a way for TOPCon cells in the commercialization of future tandems.