Silicon carbide is an extremely hard synthetic material commonly used for abrasives and metallurgical applications, boasting the same Mohs hardness rating as diamond and making it one of the hardest materials in existence.
Transparent and conductive microcrystalline (mc) SiC is an excellent window layer material for thin film solar cells, offering greater transparency than standard transparent conductive oxide (TCO) materials.
Optical Transparency
Optically transparent materials have the property of freely transmitting light. This property is essential in many applications, particularly dielectric materials like insulators which manage electric fields by absorbing or reflecting incoming energy. A film’s transparency depends on its thickness, refractive index and structure of material – low refractive index materials will tend to produce thinner films which are more transparent; conversely higher refractive index will create thicker ones which become opaquer over time.
Silicon carbide is transparent, making it an excellent material choice for dielectric applications. Furthermore, its crystalline nature helps improve transparency by limiting light scattering caused by atomic defects – making it suitable for optical components and displays that demand high performance efficiency.
Silicon carbide passivating contacts (TPCs) have the ability to serve as front contacts in crystalline silicon solar cells in place of amorphous silicon, with their TPC comprising of a tunnel layer of silicon oxide and two or more non-conducting silicon carbide:H(n) layers which may be deposited at different temperatures depending on conductivity, surface passivation requirements, optical transparency requirements etc.
As electron transparent windows for transmission electron microscopy (TEM), amorphous and low stress silicon nitride offer several distinct advantages over their conventional counterparts; more specifically a-SiCx windows offer highly transparent images down to 0.12nm resolution with superior resistance against electron beam damage.
Termisk konduktivitet
Silicon carbide thermal conductivity can be measured using its bandgap width, which determines how much energy must pass through it to do its job. This property is especially important in transparent materials that let visible light pass through unimpeded. As its bandgap widens, more energy will be necessary for passage.
SiC’s wide band gap makes it an excellent window layer in solar cells, which can replace traditional tin-copper oxide (TCO) materials. SiC is also commonly found in electronic devices that require high temperatures or power, including fabricating semiconductors such as LEDs with ease as it withstands high voltages without shattering; its chemical resistance also proves valuable in medical applications.
Low-pressure chemical vapor deposition was used to deposit nonstoichiometric amorphous silicon carbide layers characterized by low ellipsometer, quasi steady state photoconductivity, surface profiling, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show highly uniform and continuous layers with tensile intrinsic stress and chemical inertness properties as well as being etch-resistant with low roughness etch resistance. Furthermore, an EDX line profile showed these a-SiCx layers were composed of Si, Carbon (C), Oxygen (O) and small amounts of chlorine (Cl). Furthermore they display wavelength dependence for band gapping at 2.3eV.
Electrical Conductivity
Electrical conductivity measurements were conducted on nc-SiC:H deposited at different filament temperatures and discovered to be highly tuneable over 10 orders of magnitude, driven mainly by filament temperature and hydrogen dilution rates (with variations exceeding nine orders of magnitude in seconds). Other deposition parameters like filament-substrate distance, nitrogen flow rate and deposition pressure had only minor impacts ( one order of magnitude) on dark conductivity during this study period.
The nc-SiC:H layer exhibits excellent energy alignment between its conduction band edge and the Fermi level of c-Si substrate, creating an effective electron transport barrier of less than 100 meV – this allows high current densities at tunnel oxide/c-Si substrate interface to be reached easily while also offering high carrier selectivity without doped a-Si/poly-Si layers as passivation layers.
These results demonstrate the promise of nc-SiC:H as an electron transparent window layer suitable for SiC solar cells. Its low optical absorptance in wavelength range of interest allows efficient light collection from solar cell n-type SiC/a-Si tunnel junction front contacts without sacrificing conductivity for passivation; something which had limited previous attempts at making efficient SiC solar cells using n-type intrinsic a-Si or poly-Si as tunnel oxide passivation layers12-13.
Kemisk beständighet
Silicon carbide possesses superior chemical resistance, withstanding even high temperatures without degrading or cracking under pressure. Furthermore, its resistance to acids, lyes and other chemicals make it an ideal material for industrial applications.
Silicon carbide can also be used as a reinforcing material in composite materials to improve their mechanical properties, particularly strength, elastic modulus and thermal conductivity. When added to plastics it increases strength, elastic modulus and thermal conductivity while simultaneously increasing wear resistance – for instance adding 15% silicon carbide whiskers increases PEEK’s flexural strength twofold at normal temperatures! Silicon carbide can also be added to ceramics to strengthen them as well as increase hardness, ductility and wear resistance.
Recrystallized a-SiC is often utilized for energy saving kiln furniture due to its superior corrosion resistance to molten steel, coke slag and coke; thermal shock resistance; ceramic industry kiln brick production; as well as being suitable for use as smelter lining, blast furnace belly lining and coke tower lining applications as well as widely being utilized as refractory tools, high grade refractory materials, fine ceramics or even as tools and abrasives.
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