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Crystals
Special Issues
Growth and Evaluation of Multicrystalline Silicon
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Growth and Evaluation of Multicrystalline Silicon

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2018) | Viewed by 15035

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Kozo Fujiwara

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Interests: growth of silicon ingot; crystal growth mechanism; defect formation; characterization of defects; evaluation of silicon ingot and wafer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Chung-wen Lan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Chemical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Interests: Crystal Growth Technology, Electronic Materials Processing, CFD and High Performance Computing
Prof. Dr. Koichi Kakimoto

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Research Institute for Applied Mechanics, Kyushu University, 6-1 Kasuga-koen, Kasuga Fukuoka 816-8580, Japan
Interests: fluid dynamics; quantum mechanics; molecular dinamics; Monte Carlo simulation; solution growth
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) is widely used for substrates of solar cells. It is well understood that there is an advantage in the production cost in a mc-Si ingot in comparison to a single crystal Si, although the quality of mc-Si ingot should be improved further.  

To realize a high energy conversion efficiency of mc-Si solar cells, the development of crystal growth technology is required. Furthermore, the fundamental understanding of crystal growth mechanism of mc-Si, mechanism of  defects formation, and evaluation of mc-Si wafers are crucial.

We invite investigators to submit papers which discuss the development of high quality multicrystalline Si for solar cells, including bulk ingots and thin films.

The potential topics include:

  • Crystal growth of mc-Si ingot
  • Crystal growth of mc-Si thin films
  • Crystal growth mechanisms of mc-Si
  • Defects formation and their property in mc-Si
  • Evaluation of mc-Si wafers
  • Property of solar cells based on mc-Si
  • Crystal growth of new materials based on Si

Prof. Dr. Kozo Fujiwara
Prof. Dr. Chung-wen Lan
Prof. Dr. Koichi Kakimoto
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Crystal growth
  • Crystal/melt interface
  • Bulk ingot
  • Thin films
  • Dislocation, grain boundary, twin boundary, impurity
  • Nucleation, grain orientation
  • Computations
  • Minority carrier lifetime

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

7 pages, 7133 KiB  
Article
Formation of Dislocations in the Growth of Silicon along Different Crystallographic Directions—A Molecular Dynamics Study
by Naigen Zhou, Xiuqin Wei and Lang Zhou
Crystals 2018, 8(9), 346; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst8090346 - 29 Aug 2018
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2923
Abstract
Molecular dynamics simulations of the seeded solidification of silicon along <100>, <110>, <111> and <112> directions have been carried out. The Tersoff potential is adopted for computing atomic interaction. The control of uniaxial strains in the seed crystals is enabled in the simulations. [...] Read more.
Molecular dynamics simulations of the seeded solidification of silicon along <100>, <110>, <111> and <112> directions have been carried out. The Tersoff potential is adopted for computing atomic interaction. The control of uniaxial strains in the seed crystals is enabled in the simulations. The results show that the dislocation forms stochastically at the crystal/melt interface, with the highest probability of the formation in <111> growth, which agrees with the prediction from a previously proposed twinning-associated dislocation formation mechanism. Applications of the strains within a certain range are found to inhibit the {111}-twinning-associated dislocation formation, while beyond this range they are found to induce dislocation formation by different mechanisms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Multicrystalline Silicon)
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15 pages, 4491 KiB  
Article
Investigation of the Grain Boundary Character and Dislocation Density of Different Types of High Performance Multicrystalline Silicon
by Gaute Stokkan, Adolphus Song and Birgit Ryningen
Crystals 2018, 8(9), 341; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst8090341 - 24 Aug 2018
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 4961
Abstract
Wafers from three heights and two different lateral positions (corner and centre) of four industrial multicrystalline silicon ingots were analysed with respect to their grain structure and dislocation density. Three of the ingots were non-seeded and one ingot was seeded. It was found [...] Read more.
Wafers from three heights and two different lateral positions (corner and centre) of four industrial multicrystalline silicon ingots were analysed with respect to their grain structure and dislocation density. Three of the ingots were non-seeded and one ingot was seeded. It was found that there is a strong correlation between the ratio of the densities of (coincidence site lattice) CSL grain boundaries and high angle grain boundaries in the bottom of a block and the dislocation cluster density higher in the block. In general, the seeded blocks, both the corner and centre block, have a lower dislocation cluster density than in the non-seeded blocks, which displayed a large variation. The density of the random angle boundaries in the corner blocks of the non-seeded ingots was similar to the density in the seeded ingots, while the density in the centre blocks was lower. However, the density of CSL boundaries was higher in all the non-seeded than in the seeded ingots. It appears that both of these grain boundary densities influence the presence of dislocation clusters, and we propose they act as dislocation sinks and sources, respectively. The ability to generate small grain size material without seeding appears to be correlated to the morphology of the coating, which is generally rougher in the corner positions than in the middle. Furthermore, the density of twins and CSL boundaries depends on the growth mode during initial growth and thus on the degree of supercooling. Controlling both these properties is important in order to be able to successfully produce uniform quality high-performance multicrystalline silicon by the advantageous non-seeding method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Multicrystalline Silicon)
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8 pages, 5582 KiB  
Article
Investigation of Si Dendrites by Electron-Beam-Induced Current
by Wei Yi, Jun Chen, Shun Ito, Koji Nakazato, Takashi Kimura, Takashi Sekiguchi and Kozo Fujiwara
Crystals 2018, 8(8), 317; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst8080317 - 07 Aug 2018
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2821
Abstract
This paper reports on electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) characterization of special multicrystalline Si ingot by dendritic growth under high undercooling. Grain boundaries (GBs), dislocations, and their interaction with carbon related precipitates were investigated. The difference between grains from dendrite and non-dendrite growth was compared. [...] Read more.
This paper reports on electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) characterization of special multicrystalline Si ingot by dendritic growth under high undercooling. Grain boundaries (GBs), dislocations, and their interaction with carbon related precipitates were investigated. The difference between grains from dendrite and non-dendrite growth was compared. In dendrite grains, parallel twins were frequently found. In non-dendrite grains, irregular GBs of various characters co-existed. Both parallel twins and irregular GBs exhibited dark EBIC contrast at room temperature, indicating the presence of minority carrier recombination centers due to impurity contamination. However, sometimes in non-dendrite grains GBs were visualized with bright EBIC contrast with enhanced collection of charge carriers. The origin of the abnormal bright EBIC contrast was explored and it turned out to be SiC related precipitates, which made GBs conduction channels for electron transport. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Multicrystalline Silicon)
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9 pages, 1661 KiB  
Article
Relationship between Dislocation Density and Oxygen Concentration in Silicon Crystals during Directional Solidification
by Tomoro Ide, Hirofumi Harada, Yoshiji Miyamura, Masato Imai, Satoshi Nakano and Koichi Kakimoto
Crystals 2018, 8(6), 244; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst8060244 - 07 Jun 2018
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3752
Abstract
This paper reports the relationship between oxygen concentration and dislocation multiplication in silicon crystals during directional solidification using numerical analysis. Based on the Alexander–Haasen–Sumino model, this analysis involved oxygen diffusion from the bulk to dislocation cores during crystal growth and annealing processes in [...] Read more.
This paper reports the relationship between oxygen concentration and dislocation multiplication in silicon crystals during directional solidification using numerical analysis. Based on the Alexander–Haasen–Sumino model, this analysis involved oxygen diffusion from the bulk to dislocation cores during crystal growth and annealing processes in a furnace. The results showed that the dislocation density mainly increased during cooling process, rather than crystal growth, when the effect of oxygen diffusion to dislocation cores was ignored. On the contrary, the dislocation density increased during both crystal growth and cooling processes when the effect of interstitial oxygen diffusion was considered. At a dislocation density larger than 1.0 × 105 cm−2, the interstitial oxygen concentration in bulk decreased due to the diffusion process, if interstitial oxygen atoms were between dislocations, whereas the concentration at dislocation cores increases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Growth and Evaluation of Multicrystalline Silicon)
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