Graphene oxide films for field effect surface passivation of silicon for solar cells

In recent years it has been shown that graphene oxide (GO) can be used to passivate silicon surfaces resulting in increased photocurrents in metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) tunneling diodes, and in improved efficiencies in Schottky-barrier solar cells with either metal or graphene barriers, however, the source of this passivation is still unclear. The suggested mechanisms responsible for the enhanced device performance include the dangling bond saturation at the surface by the diverse functional groups decorating the GO sheets which reduce the recombination sites, or field effect passivation produced by intrinsic negative surface charge of GO. In this work through a series of measurements of minority carrier lifetime with the microwave photo-conductance decay (µPCD) technique, infrared absorption spectra, and surface potential with Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) we show that there is no evidence of significant chemical passivation coming from the GO films but rather negative field effect passivation. We also discuss the stability of GO's passivation and the flexibility of this material for its application as temporary passivation layer for bulk lifetime measurements, or as a potential cheap alternative to current passivation materials used in solar cell fabrication.