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Crystals
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Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II)
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Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II)

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 July 2020) | Viewed by 22960

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Kozo Fujiwara

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Interests: growth of silicon ingot; crystal growth mechanism; defect formation; characterization of defects; evaluation of silicon ingot and wafer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crystalline silicon (single and multicrystalline) is widely used for substrates of solar cells. Further improvement of solar cell performance and reduction of production cost are still required, both at the present and in the future.
To realize a high-energy conversion efficiency of crystalline Si solar cells, the development of crystal growth technology is required. Furthermore, fundamental understanding of crystal growth mechanisms and defect formation, and evaluation of Si wafers are crucial.
We invite investigators to submit papers which discuss the development of high-quality crystalline Si for solar cells, including bulk ingots and thin films.

The potential topics include:

  • Crystal growth of Si ingot;
  • Crystal growth of Si thin films;
  • Crystal growth mechanisms of Si;
  • Defects formation and their property in Si;
  • Evaluation of Si wafers;
  • Property of solar cells based on crystalline Si;
  • Materials of crucible for growth of Si ingot;
  • Raw material;
  • Crystal growth of new materials based on Si.

Prof. Dr. Kozo Fujiwara
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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10 pages, 18723 KiB  
Article
Dendritic Growth in Si1−xGex Melts
by Genki Takakura, Mukannan Arivanandhan, Kensaku Maeda, Lu-Chung Chuang, Keiji Shiga, Haruhiko Morito and Kozo Fujiwara
Crystals 2021, 11(7), 761; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst11070761 - 29 Jun 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 3792
Abstract
We investigated the types of dendrites grown in Si1−xGex (0 < x < 1) melts, and also investigated the initiation of dendrite growth during unidirectional growth of Si1-xGex alloys. Si1−xGex (0 < x < [...] Read more.
We investigated the types of dendrites grown in Si1−xGex (0 < x < 1) melts, and also investigated the initiation of dendrite growth during unidirectional growth of Si1-xGex alloys. Si1−xGex (0 < x < 1) is a semiconductor alloy with a completely miscible-type binary phase diagram. Therefore, Si1−xGex alloys are promising for use as epitaxial substrates for electronic devices owing to the fact that their band gap and lattice constant can be tuned by selecting the proper composition, and also for thermoelectric applications at elevated temperatures. On the other hand, regarding the fundamentals of solidification, some phenomena during the solidification process have not been clarified completely. Dendrite growth is a well-known phenomenon, which appears during the solidification processes of various materials. However, the details of dendrite growth in Si1−xGex (0 < x < 1) melts have not yet been reported. We attempted to observe dendritic growth in Si1−xGex (0 < x < 1) melts over a wide range of composition by an in situ observation technique. It was found that twin-related dendrites appear in Si1−xGex (0 < x < 1) melts. It was also found that faceted dendrites can be grown in directional solidification before instability of the crystal/melt interface occurs, when a growing crystal contains parallel twin boundaries. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II))
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15 pages, 3752 KiB  
Article
Research on Performance Improvement of Photovoltaic Cells and Modules Based on Black Silicon
by Zijian Chen, Haoyuan Jia, Yunfeng Zhang, Leilei Fan, Haina Zhu, Hong Ge, Baowen Cao and Shiyu Wang
Crystals 2020, 10(9), 753; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10090753 - 26 Aug 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2246
Abstract
This paper mainly studied the electrical performance improvement of black silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules. The electrical performance of the cells and modules matched with black silicon was optimized through three different experiments. Firstly, in the pre-cleaning step, the effect of lotion [...] Read more.
This paper mainly studied the electrical performance improvement of black silicon photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules. The electrical performance of the cells and modules matched with black silicon was optimized through three different experiments. Firstly, in the pre-cleaning step, the effect of lotion selection on the cell performance was studied. Compared with alkaline lotion, using acidic lotion on black silicon wafer can achieve an efficiency improvement of the black silicon cell by nearly 0.154%. Secondly, the influence of oxygen flux control of the thermal oxidation step on the improvement of cell efficiency was studied. The addition of the thermal oxidation step and its oxygen flux control resulted in an efficiency increase of the black silicon cell of nearly 0.11%. The most optimized volume control of the oxygen flux is at 2200 standard cubic centimeter per minute (SCCM). Finally, in the module packaging process, the selection of components will also greatly affect the performance of the black silicon PV module. The most reasonable selection of components can increase the output power of the black silicon PV module by 6.13 W. In a word, the technical indication of the electrical performance improvement suggested in this study plays an important guiding role in the actual production process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II))
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11 pages, 1766 KiB  
Article
Comparison of the Isotopic Composition of Silicon Crystals Highly Enriched in 28Si
by Olaf Rienitz and Axel Pramann
Crystals 2020, 10(6), 500; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10060500 - 11 Jun 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2488
Abstract
The isotopic composition and molar mass M of silicon in a new crystal (code: Si28-33Pr11) measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry using a high-resolution multicollector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) is presented using the virtual-element isotope dilution mass spectrometry (VE-IDMS) method. For this [...] Read more.
The isotopic composition and molar mass M of silicon in a new crystal (code: Si28-33Pr11) measured by isotope ratio mass spectrometry using a high-resolution multicollector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) is presented using the virtual-element isotope dilution mass spectrometry (VE-IDMS) method. For this new crystal, M = 27.976 950 48 (16) g/mol was determined with urel(M) = 5.7 × 10−9. The “X-ray-crystal-density (XRCD) method”, one of the primary methods for realizing and disseminating the SI units kilogram and mole in the recently revised SI, is based on “counting” silicon atoms in silicon single crystal spheres. One of the key quantities is the isotopic composition—expressed by the molar mass M—of the three stable isotopes 28Si, 29Si, and 30Si in the material highly enriched in 28Si. M was determined with lowest possible uncertainty using latest improvements of the experimental techniques. All uncertainties were estimated according to the “Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement, GUM”. The results of the new crystal are discussed and compared with the four previously available crystals, establishing a worldwide limited pool of primary reference spheres of highest metrological quality. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II))
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9 pages, 4086 KiB  
Article
Abrupt Change Effect of Bandgap Energy on Quantum System of Silicon Nanowire
by Zhong-Mei Huang, Shi-Rong Liu, Hong-Yan Peng, Xin Li and Wei-Qi Huang
Crystals 2020, 10(5), 340; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10050340 - 26 Apr 2020
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2392
Abstract
In the quantum system of Si nanowire (NW), the energy bandgap obviously increases with decreasing radius size of NW, in which the quantum confinement (QC) effect plays a main role. Furthermore, the simulation result demonstrated that the direct bandgap can be obtained as [...] Read more.
In the quantum system of Si nanowire (NW), the energy bandgap obviously increases with decreasing radius size of NW, in which the quantum confinement (QC) effect plays a main role. Furthermore, the simulation result demonstrated that the direct bandgap can be obtained as the NW diameter is smaller than 3 nm in Si NW with (001) direction. However, it is discovered in the simulating calculation that the QC effect disappears as the NW diameter arrives at size of monoatomic line, in which its bandgap sharply deceases where the abrupt change effect in bandgap energy occurs near the idea quantum wire. In the experiment, we fabricated the Si NW structure by using annealing and pulsed laser deposition methods, in which a novel way was used to control the radius size of Si NW by confining cylinder space of NW in nanolayer. It should have a good application on optic-electronic waveguide of silicon chip. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II))
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8 pages, 3403 KiB  
Article
Synthesis of Boron-Doped Silicon Film Using Hot Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition Technique
by M. Abul Hossion and B. M. Arora
Crystals 2020, 10(4), 237; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10040237 - 25 Mar 2020
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3260
Abstract
Boron-doped polycrystalline silicon film was synthesized using hot wire chemical vapor deposition technique for possible application in photonics devices. To investigate the effect of substrate, we considered Si/SiO2, glass/ITO/TiO2, Al2O3, and nickel tungsten alloy strip [...] Read more.
Boron-doped polycrystalline silicon film was synthesized using hot wire chemical vapor deposition technique for possible application in photonics devices. To investigate the effect of substrate, we considered Si/SiO2, glass/ITO/TiO2, Al2O3, and nickel tungsten alloy strip for the growth of polycrystalline silicon films. Scanning electron microscopy, optical reflectance, optical transmittance, X-ray diffraction, and I-V measurements were used to characterize the silicon films. The resistivity of the film was 1.3 × 10−2 Ω-cm for the polycrystalline silicon film, which was suitable for using as a window layer in a solar cell. These films have potential uses in making photodiode and photosensing devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II))
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Review

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25 pages, 4040 KiB  
Review
X-ray Based in Situ Investigation of Silicon Growth Mechanism Dynamics—Application to Grain and Defect Formation
by Hadjer Ouaddah, Maike Becker, Thècle Riberi-Béridot, Maria Tsoutsouva, Vasiliki Stamelou, Gabrielle Regula, Guillaume Reinhart, Isabelle Périchaud, Fabrice Guittonneau, Laurent Barrallier, Jean-Paul Valade, Alexander Rack, Elodie Boller, José Baruchel and Nathalie Mangelinck-Noël
Crystals 2020, 10(7), 555; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10070555 - 30 Jun 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3625
Abstract
To control the final grain structure and the density of structural crystalline defects in silicon (Si) ingots is still a main issue for Si used in photovoltaic solar cells. It concerns both innovative and conventional fabrication processes. Due to the dynamic essence of [...] Read more.
To control the final grain structure and the density of structural crystalline defects in silicon (Si) ingots is still a main issue for Si used in photovoltaic solar cells. It concerns both innovative and conventional fabrication processes. Due to the dynamic essence of the phenomena and to the coupling of mechanisms at different scales, the post-mortem study of the solidified ingots gives limited results. In the past years, we developed an original system named GaTSBI for Growth at high Temperature observed by Synchrotron Beam Imaging, to investigate in situ the mechanisms involved during solidification. X-ray radiography and X-ray Bragg diffraction imaging (topography) are combined and implemented together with the running of a high temperature (up to 2073 K) solidification furnace. The experiments are conducted at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF). Both imaging techniques provide in situ and real time information during growth on the morphology and kinetics of the solid/liquid (S/L) interface, as well as on the deformation of the crystal structure and on the dynamics of structural defects including dislocations. Essential features of twinning, grain nucleation, competition, strain building, and dislocations during Si solidification are characterized and allow a deeper understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of its growth. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II))
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16 pages, 12381 KiB  
Review
Unseeded Crystal Growth of (100)-Oriented Grain-Boundary-Free Si Thin-Film by a Single Scan of the CW-Laser Lateral Crystallization of a-Si on Insulator
by Nobuo Sasaki, Muhammad Arif, Yukiharu Uraoka, Jun Gotoh and Shigeto Sugimoto
Crystals 2020, 10(5), 405; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst10050405 - 17 May 2020
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4512
Abstract
Laser crystallization of a-Si film on insulating substrate is a promising technology to fabricate three-dimensional integrations (3D ICs), flat panel displays (FPDs), or flexible electronics, because the crystallization can be performed on room temperature substrate to avoid damage to the underlying devices or [...] Read more.
Laser crystallization of a-Si film on insulating substrate is a promising technology to fabricate three-dimensional integrations (3D ICs), flat panel displays (FPDs), or flexible electronics, because the crystallization can be performed on room temperature substrate to avoid damage to the underlying devices or supporting plane. Orientation-controlled grain-boundary-free films are required to improve the uniformity in electrical characteristics of field-effect-transistors (FETs)fabricated in those films. This paper describes the recently found simple method to obtain {100}-oriented grain-boundary-free Si thin-films stably, by using a single scan of continuous-wave (CW)-laser lateral crystallization of a-Si with a highly top-flat line beam with 532 nm wavelength at room temperature in air. It was difficult to control crystal orientations in the grain-boundary-free film crystallized by the artificial modulation of solid-liquid interface, and any other trial to obtain preferential surface orientation with multiple irradiations resulted in grain boundaries. The self-organized growth of the {100}-oriented grain-boundary-free films were realized by satisfying the following conditions: (1) highly uniform top-flat line beam, (2) SiO2 cap, (3) low laser power density in the vicinity of the lateral growth threshold, and (4) single scan crystallization. Higher scan velocity makes the process window wide for the {100}-oriented grain-boundary-free film. This crystallization is very simple, because it is performed by a single unseeded scan with a line beam at room temperature substrate in air. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Crystalline Silicon (Volume II))
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