Very low surface recombination velocity on p-type c-Si by high-rate plasma-deposited aluminum oxide

Aluminum oxide layers can provide excellent passivation for lowly and highly doped p-type silicon surfaces. Fixed negative charges induce an accumulation layer at the p-type silicon interface, resulting in very effective field-effect passivation. This paper presents highly negatively charged (Qox=-2.1x1012 cm-2) aluminum oxide layers produced using an inline plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system, leading to very low effective recombination velocities (∼10 cm s-1) on low-resistivity p-type substrates. A minimum static deposition rate (100 nm min-1) at least one order of magnitude higher than atomic layer deposition was achieved on a large carrier surfaces (∼1 m2) without significantly reducing the resultant passivation quality.