Greatly enhanced hole collection of MoO(x) with top sub-10 nm thick silver films for gridless and flexible crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

Greatly enhanced hole collection of MoO(x) is demonstrated experimentally with a top sub-10 nm thick Ag film, allowing for an efficient dopant-free contacted crystalline silicon (c-Si) heterojunction solar cell without a front grid electrode. With the removal of shadows induced by the front grid electrode, the gridless solar cell with the MoO(x)/Ag hole-selective contact (HSC) shows an increment of ∼8% in its power conversion efficiency (PCE) due to the greatly improved short-circuit current density (J(sc)) as well as the almost undiminished fill factor (FF) and open-circuit voltage (V(oc)), while the gridless solar cells with the conventional MoO(x)/ITO and pure MoO(x) HSCs exhibit ∼20% and ∼43% degradations in PCE due to the overwhelming decrease in their FF and J(sc), respectively. Through systematic characterizations and analyses, it is found that the ultrathin Ag film (more conductive than ITO) provides an additional channel for photogenerated holes to transport on MoO(x), contributing to the great enhancement in the hole collection and the great suppression of the shunt loss in the gridless solar cells. A 50 μm thick gridless c-Si heterojunction solar cell with the MoO(x)/Ag HSC is 75% thinner but is 86% efficient compared to its 200 μm thick counterpart (while the 50 μm thick gridless solar cell with the MoO(x)/ITO HSC is much less efficient). It is over 82% efficient after being bent to a curvature radius as small as 4 mm, also showing superior mechanical flexibility to its counterpart with the MoO(x)/ITO HSC. Our MoO(x)/Ag double-layer HSC can be easily fabricated through thermal evaporation without breaking the vacuum, saving both the time and cost of the fabrication of the whole device. Therefore, this work provides a guide for the design of efficient HSCs for high-efficiency, low-cost, and flexible solar cells.