Electron Selective Passivation Contact of Hydrogenated Titanium Nitride for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells
Dopant‐free electron‐selective contact materials with hydrogen passivation are crucial for electronic extraction applications for crystalline silicon (c‐Si) cells. However, research on these materials, particularly transition metal nitrides, is limited. In this work, we investigate a titanium nitride (TiN)/SiO x stack placed between c‐Si and metal electrode, examining how hydrogen passivate affect the interfacial contacts. Three methods were investigated: (1) using Ar/H 2 (95%/5%) as the working gas during TiN deposition; (2) pure Ar during TiN deposition followed by postannealing at 250°C for 30 min; and (3) Ar/H 2 during deposition, followed by postannealing. A control group without hydrogenation is also included. The best performance, with a contact resistivity of 1.48 mΩ·cm 2 and an open‐circuit voltage of 674.4 mV, result in a champion power conversion efficiency of 22.4% as the dopant‐free electron‐selective contact material. This work highlights the sensitivity of transition metal nitrides, such as TiN, to hydrogenation under natural oxidizing conditions and emphasized the critical role of postannealing processes and material compatibility.
Authors
- Guofu Hou
- Yi Ding (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0163-9925)
- Wei Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4076-3200)
- Bike Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2652-4318)
- Qian Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0007-2808-5682)
- Zhiyuan Xu
- Huizhi Ren
- Xiaodan Zhang
- Jian He
- Xinliang Chen
- Ying Zhao
- Yu Yan
Institutions
- Tianjin University of Technology (CN)
- Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Shenzhen University (CN)
- Nankai University (CN)
- The Seventh Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University (CN)
- Beijing Solar Energy Research Institute (CN)
- Changzhou University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Solar RRL
- Published
- 2026-02-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/solr.202500962
- Primary Topic
- Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Nankai University
- Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin City
- State Key Laboratory of Photovoltaic Science and Technology
- National Key Research and Development Program of China
- Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities