We investigate the role of hydrogen content and fixed charges of catalytic chemical vapor deposited (Cat-CVD) SiNx/Si-rich SiNx stacked layers on the quality of crystalline silicon (c-Si) surface passivation. Calculated density of fixed charges is on the order of 10(12) cm(-2), which is high enough for effective field effect passivation. Hydrogen content in the films is also found to contribute significantly to improvement in passivation quality of the stacked layers. Furthermore, Si-rich SiNx films deposited with H-2 dilution show better passivation quality of SiNx/Si-rich SiNx stacked layers than those prepared without H-2 dilution. Effective minority carrier lifetime (tau(eff)) in c-Si passivated by SiNx/Si-rich SiNx stacked layers is as high as 5.1 mswhen H-2 is added during Si-rich SiNx deposition, which ismuch higher than the case of using Si-rich SiNx films prepared without H-2 dilution showing tau(eff) of 3.3ms. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.