Non‐Stoichiometric AlO x– Modified Al‐Doped MoO x Passivating Contacts Enabled High‐Efficiency Dopant‐Free Silicon Solar Cells

ABSTRACT Transition‐metal oxides such as MoO x are attractive hole‐selective contacts for crystalline silicon (c‐Si) photovoltaics; however, their performance is fundamentally limited by oxygen‐vacancy–induced work‐function instability, interfacial Fermi‐level pinning, and insufficient carrier selectivity. Here, we present a synergistic bulk–interface engineering strategy that combines Al‐incorporated MoO x (Al–MoO x ) with an ultrathin atomic‐layer‐deposited (ALD) AlO x interlayer to concurrently regulate Mo–O coordination, suppress defect‐mediated recombination, and restore interfacial band bending. Al incorporation homogenizes the electronic structure of MoO x and improves nanoscale carrier transport, while the AlO x interlayer provides effective chemical and field‐effect passivation, stabilizing the macroscopic potential offset at the c‐Si/oxide interface. Infrared spectroscopy and THz near‐field images reveal that AlO x passivation selectively enhances the low‐frequency electromagnetic response of thin Al–MoO x films, whereas this effect becomes negligible in thicker layers, consistent with an interfacial modulation of low‐frequency dielectric screening. As a result, p‐Si solar cells employing a 5‐nm Al–MoO x contact with a 6‐cycle AlO x interlayer achieve a power conversion efficiency of 23.24%, representing the highest reported efficiency for MoO x ‐based hole‐selective contacts without doped amorphous silicon. This work establishes a generalizable interface‐stabilization strategy for ultrathin oxide contacts in high‐efficiency silicon photovoltaics.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Functional Materials
Published
2026-09-18
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.78473
Primary Topic
Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Non‐Stoichiometric AlO x– Modified Al‐Doped MoO x Passivating Contacts Enabled High‐Efficiency Dopant‐Free Silicon Solar Cells

Bin Ding, Guanjun You, Xiaohong Zhang, Shu Chen et al.
Advanced Functional Materials
Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies
article

Non‐Stoichiometric AlO x– Modified Al‐Doped MoO x Passivating Contacts Enabled High‐Efficiency Dopant‐Free Silicon Solar Cells

Bin Ding, Guanjun You, Xiaohong Zhang, Shu Chen, Dongdong Li, Yi Ji, Yanhao Wang, Shuilong Kang, Le Li
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Transition‐metal oxides such as MoO x are attractive hole‐selective contacts for crystalline silicon (c‐Si) photovoltaics; however, their performance is fundamentally limited by oxygen‐vacancy–induced work‐function instability, interfacial Fermi‐level pinning, and insufficient carrier selectivity. Here, we present a synergistic bulk–interface engineering strategy that combines Al‐incorporated MoO x (Al–MoO x ) with an ultrathin atomic‐layer‐deposited (ALD) AlO x interlayer to concurrently regulate Mo–O coordination, suppress defect‐mediated recombination, and restore interfacial band bending. Al incorporation homogenizes the electronic structure of MoO x and improves nanoscale carrier transport, while the AlO x interlayer provides effective chemical and field‐effect passivation, stabilizing the macroscopic potential offset at the c‐Si/oxide interface. Infrared spectroscopy and THz near‐field images reveal that AlO x passivation selectively enhances the low‐frequency electromagnetic response of thin Al–MoO x films, whereas this effect becomes negligible in thicker layers, consistent with an interfacial modulation of low‐frequency dielectric screening. As a result, p‐Si solar cells employing a 5‐nm Al–MoO x contact with a 6‐cycle AlO x interlayer achieve a power conversion efficiency of 23.24%, representing the highest reported efficiency for MoO x ‐based hole‐selective contacts without doped amorphous silicon. This work establishes a generalizable interface‐stabilization strategy for ultrathin oxide contacts in high‐efficiency silicon photovoltaics.

Advanced Functional Materials
Soochow University (CN), Shenzhen Terahertz Technology Innovation Research Institute (CN), Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Affordable and clean energy
Openalex Percentile: Top 20%
Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies
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