Assessment of the influence of charged dangling bonds on the short circuit current in amorphous silicon solar cells

A theoretical study of the charged dangling bonds in p–i–n amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells is presented. An improved analytical expression of the bulk collection efficiency is derived incorporating charged dangling bonds. It is used in calculating the short circuit current employing the admittance analysis method to study the effect of D+ and D− states. The method is extended to obtain results when the generation of charge carriers in the i-layer is dependent on position. The theory is general and can be applied to any multi-layered device structure.