Influence of germanium doping on the performance of high-performance multi-crystalline silicon

Abstract The effect of germanium (Ge) doping on the performance of high-performance multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) has been investigated in this work. The Ge doping in the mc-Si ingot could reduce the concentration of FeB complexes and dislocation density, resulting in the improvement of minority carrier lifetime. Due to this reduction in dislocation density, the mechanical strength of the mc-Si wafers was enhanced by Ge doping. The preliminary experimental results showed that the average conversion efficiency of Ge-doped mc-Si solar cells was higher than that of normal undoped mc-Si solar cells under the same solar cell fabrication processes. Consequently, we propose that Ge doping is beneficial for the fabrication of higher performance of mc-Si solar cells.