Passivation of cut edges of crystalline silicon by heat treatment in liquid water

Abstract We report on the effective passivation of cut edges n-type (100) crystalline silicon by forming thin oxide layers achieved heat treatment in liquid water at 90 °C for 2 h followed heating an air atmosphere 300 1 h. The mechanical with (110) oriented cleaved edge markedly decreased photo-induced minority carrier lifetime τ eff to 6.9 × 10 −4 s, which was 0.22 times initial value 3.2 −3 and maintained region 0.5 cm away from edge. present resulted reduction 0.43, values 4.0 s 9.4 0.2 analysis a simple model diffusion lateral direction recombination velocity edge, initially higher than 2000 −1 , being 50 treatment, while sample surface increased 8 (initial) 46 probably due field-induced depletion effect.