The roles of electric fields and illumination levels in passivating the surface of silicon solar cells

Author

Bai, Yibin ; Phillips, James E. ; Barnett, Allen M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Delaware Univ., Newark, DE, USA

Volume

45

Issue

8

fYear

1998

fDate

8/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1784

Lastpage

1790

Abstract

The back surface recombination velocity (BSRV) of operating silicon solar cells has been modulated by an externally applied gate voltage and illumination through a semi-transparent MOS structure. All three voltage bias modes (accumulation, depletion and inversion) of this MOS system are examined. In addition, the effects of gate bias voltage, illumination (or carrier injection level) and oxide charge on the BSRV and solar cell performance are investigated. The effects of electric field and illumination are found to play key roles in achieving a low BSRV. Methods of achieving a low BSRV with this structure are described

Keywords

MIS devices; electric fields; elemental semiconductors; interface states; passivation; silicon; solar cells; surface recombination; Si; Si solar cells; accumulation mode; back surface recombination velocity; carrier injection level; depletion mode; electric fields; externally applied gate voltage; gate bias voltage; illumination levels; inversion mode; oxide charge; semi-transparent MOS structure; solar cell performance; voltage bias modes; Charge carrier processes; Electrodes; Extraterrestrial measurements; Lighting; MOS capacitors; Passivation; Photovoltaic cells; Silicon; Spontaneous emission; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.704379

Filename

704379