Method of manufacturing silicon-based thin-film photoelectric conversion device

摘要

A method of fabricating a silicon-based thin-film photoelectric conversion device including a crystalline photoelectric conversion layer is characterized in that in applying a plasma CVD method to deposit the crystalline photoelectric conversion layer: a temperature of the underlying layer is less than 550 DEG C; a pressure in a plasma reaction chamber is more than 5 Torr ; a silane-type gas and hydrogen gas are introduced into the reaction chamber, with the hydrogen gas more than 50 times larger in flow rate than the silane-type gas; and at least one operation is carried out selected from the group of the following four operations, namely, operation (a) of increasing a distance between plasma discharge electrodes (3,4) so that the inter-electrode distance is at most one centimeter larger when the photoelectric conversion layer has been completely deposited than when the photoelectric conversion layer starts to be deposited, the inter-electrode distance being increased gradually or in steps after the photoelectric conversion layer has been deposited to 20 to 80% of its final thickness, operation (b) of providing in the reaction chamber a first pressure of more than 5 Torr when the photoelectric conversion layer starts to be deposited and also increasing the pressure gradually or in steps to a second pressure until the photoelectric conversion layer is completely deposited, operation (c) of providing the silane-type gas of a flow rate 1.1 to 1.5 times larger when the photoelectric conversion layer has been completely deposited than when the photoelectric conversion layer starts to be deposited, the flow rate of the silane-type gas being gradually increased for more than half a time required for depositing the photoelectric conversion layer, and operation (d) of providing a plasma discharging power density of more than 100 mW/cm<2>, the plasma discharging power density being at most 15% smaller when the photoelectric conversion layer has been completely deposited than when the photoelectric conversion layer starts to be deposited, the plasma discharging power density being reduced gradually or in steps after the photoelectric conversion layer has been deposited to 20 to 80% of its final thickness.