Nondestructive measurement of bulk lifetime and surface recombination velocities

Bulk lifetime and surface recombination velocities at both the front and the rear surfaces are important parameters that affect the performance of solar cells. In the author´s earlier work (see J. Appl Phys., vol. 72, p.141 (1992)), they presented a detailed theoretical analysis for a contactless nondestructive technique to obtain these parameters. Here, they present the first experimentally measured data using this new approach. Moreover, the earlier analytical work has now been extended to also provide an estimate of the sensitivity of the extracted parameters to errors in experimental measurements. Results on measurements on single crystal silicon wafers are provided as an example