Publications by Sylvain Nicolay

Rear textured p-type high temperature passivating contacts and their implementation in perovskite/silicon tandem cells

Christophe Ballif, Quentin Thomas Jeangros, Antoine Descoeudres, Andrea Ingenito, Arnaud Walter, Sylvain Nicolay, Soo-Jin Moon, Philippe Wyss

Silicon solar cells based on high temperature passivating contacts are becoming mainstream in the photovoltaic industry. Here, we developed a high-quality boron-doped poly-silicon hole contact. When combined with a co-processed phosphorus-doped poly-silico ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2023

22.8% full-area bifacial n-PERT solar cells with rear side sputtered poly-Si (n) passivating contact

Christophe Ballif, Andrea Ingenito, Bertrand Yves Paul Paviet-Salomon, Sofia Libraro, Sylvain Nicolay

High-temperature compatible passivating contacts based on phosphorus doped polysilicon (poly-Si(n)) on a thin silicon oxide, employed on the rear side of bifacial n-PERT like solar cells provide an efficiency increase while being compatible with current ph ...

ELSEVIER2023

Localisation of front side passivating contacts for direct metallisation of high-efficiency c-Si solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Franz-Josef Haug, Xavier Niquille, Andrea Ingenito, Sylvain Nicolay, Frank Meyer

In this work, we present the development of passivating contacts based on thin interfacial oxide/doped polysilicon for two side contacted c-Si solar cells. In the first part, we discuss our layer optimization towards direct metallisation, using firing thro ...

ELSEVIER2022

Palliating the efficiency loss due to shunting in perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells through modifying the resistive properties of the recombination junction

Christophe Ballif, Gabriel Christmann, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Sylvain Nicolay

As the efficiency of commercial crystalline silicon solar cells approaches its maximum theoretical value, tandem architectures are becoming increasingly popular to continue the push to higher photovoltaic performances. Thin-film materials are particularly ...

2021

Advanced method for electrical characterization of carrier-selective passivating contacts using transfer-length-method measurements under variable illumination

Christophe Ballif, Antoine Descoeudres, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Gabriel Christmann, Bertrand Yves Paul Paviet-Salomon, Jonas Geissbühler, Nicolas Badel, Laurie-Lou Senaud, Matthieu Despeisse, Sylvain Nicolay

2021

Implementation and understanding of p plus fired rear hole selective tunnel oxide passivating contacts enabling > 22% conversion efficiency in p-type c-Si solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Franz-Josef Haug, Andrea Ingenito, Sofia Libraro, Matthieu Despeisse, Sylvain Nicolay, Philippe Wyss

Passivating contacts are key enablers for high efficiency c-Si solar cells. Here, we present our latest advancement in terms of implementation and understanding in fired passivating contacts (FPC) used as rear p + passivating contact in p-type solar cells. ...

ELSEVIER2021

Optimization of front SiNx/ITO stacks for high-efficiency two-side contacted c-Si solar cells with co-annealed front and rear passivating contacts

Christophe Ballif, Franz-Josef Haug, Xavier Niquille, Andrea Ingenito, Sylvain Nicolay, Frank Meyer

In this contribution, we present an electron selective passivating contact metallised with a low temperature process to target front side applications in crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells. In addition to an interfacial silicon oxide (SiOx) and an in-s ...

2020

Hole-Selective Front Contact Stack Enabling 24.1%-Efficient Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Bertrand Yves Paul Paviet-Salomon, Laurie-Lou Senaud, Matthieu Despeisse, Sylvain Nicolay, Jan Haschke, Luca Massimiliano Antognini, Jean Cattin, Julie Amandine Dreon

The window-layer stack limits the efficiency of both-side-contacted silicon heterojunction solar cells. We discuss here the combination of several modifications to this stack to improve its optoelectronic performance. These include the introduction of a na ...

2020

Instability of p-i-n perovskite solar cells under reverse bias

Christophe Ballif, Quentin Thomas Jeangros, Florent Sahli, Arnaud Walter, Daniel Anthony Jacobs, Fan Fu, Ricardo Augusto Zanotto Razera, Sylvain Nicolay, Peter Joseph Fiala, Laura Ding

Partial shading can trigger permanent damage in photovoltaic modules because the illuminated solar cells drive the shaded cells into reverse bias. Under reverse bias conditions, perovskite solar cells have been shown to degrade quickly due to processes tha ...

Royal Society of Chemistry2020

Low-Temperature Screen-Printed Metallization for the Scale-Up of Two-Terminal Perovskite-Silicon Tandems

Christophe Ballif, Antonin Faes, Jacques Levrat, Gabriel Christmann, Bertrand Yves Paul Paviet-Salomon, Arnaud Walter, Nicolas Badel, Adriana Paracchino, Matthieu Despeisse, Sylvain Nicolay

Tandem photovoltaic devices based on perovskite and crystalline silicon (PK/c-Si) absorbers have the potential to push commercial silicon single junction devices beyond their current efficiency limit. However, their scale-up to industrially relevant sizes ...

AMER CHEMICAL SOC2019