An approach to self-consistent analysis of a-Si:H material and p-i-n solar cell properties

Results are presented and discussed for an approach to a self-consistent analysis of a-Si:H based p-i-n solar cells. This approach addresses uncertainties present in commonly made simulations which are based solely on the neutral dangling bond densities with “arbitrary” adjustments in the parameters for the gap states in the intrinsic as well as in p/i interface layers. Parameters, as reliable as possible, are first obtained for all the intrinsic material gap states by detailed characterization of thin films and then further refined by self-consistent analysis of corresponding Schottky barrier cell characteristics. Results of solar cell simulations using these parameters are compared with those obtained from the default case in AMPS. Comparisons with experimental results are presented which illustrate the large ambiguities when the commonly used approach is applied in the simulation of solar cell characterization