Regionalizing Nitrogen Doping of Polysilicon Films Enabling High-Efficiency Tunnel Oxide Passivating Contact Silicon...

Tunnel oxide passivating contact (TOPCon) solar cells (SCs) as one of the most competitive crystalline silicon (c-Si) technologies for the TW-scaled photovoltaic (PV) market require higher passivation performance to further improve their device efficiencies. Here, the successful construction of a double-layered polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) TOPCon structure is reported using an in situ nitrogen (N)-doped poly-Si covered by a normal poly-Si, which achieves excellent passivation and contact properties simultaneously. The new design exhibits the highest implied open-circuit voltage of 755 mV and the lowest single-sided recombination current density (J₀ ) of ≈0.7 fA cm⁻² for a TOPCon structure and a low contact resistivity of less than 5 mΩ·cm² , resulting in a high selectivity factor of ≈16. The mechanisms of passivation improvement are disclosed, which suggest that the introduction of N atoms into poly-Si restrains H overflow by forming stronger Si-N and N-H bonds, reduces interfacial defects, and induces favorable energy bending. Proof-of-concept TOPCon SCs with such a design receive a remarkable certified efficiency of 25.53%.