Novel photochemical vapor deposition reactor for amorphous silicon solar cell deposition

Abstract
A novel photochemical vapor deposition (photo‐CVD) reactor having a flexible ultraviolet‐transparent Teflon curtain and a secondary gas flow to eliminate deposition on the window has been used to deposit amorphous silicon films and pin solar cells. The background levels of atmospheric contaminants (H2O, CO2, N2) depend strongly on the vacuum procedures but not on the presence of a Teflon curtain in the reactor. Intrinsic films with a midgap density of states of 3×1015 eV1 cm3 and all‐photo‐CVD pin solar cells with efficiencies of 8.5% have been deposited.