Seeding method with silicon powder for the formation of silicon spheresin the drop method

Silicon spheres with a size distribution around 1.0 mm diameter, which are applicable to spherical solar cells, were formed by dropping molten silicon through a nozzle in a free-fall tube, namely, the drop method. Here we show a seeding technique for the formation of silicon spheres. In this technique, pure silicon powders with a size distribution of 1 − 75 μ m were ejected to the molten silicon droplets at a selected part of the free-fall tube using argon carrier gas. It was considered that the attached silicon powders on the droplets worked as nuclei and stimulated the solidification to occur at low undercooling from one place. Characterizations with scanning electron microscope, carrier lifetime, and photoluminescence measurements demonstrated that the crystallinity of silicon spheres were significant improved by the seeding method. The undercooling of molten silicon droplets at solidification was speculated to decrease from ∼ 250 ° C to below 50°C by seeding power ejection. This resulted in an increase of average minority carrier lifetime from < 0.1 μ s to > 1.0 μ s .