Title :
Design considerations for stable amorphous silicon and silicon-germanium solar cells
Author :
Dalal, Vikram L. ; Baldwin, Greg
Author_Institution :
Dept. of EE & CpE, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA, USA
Abstract :
The effects of degradation of the electronic properties of a-Si:H and a-(Si,Ge):H alloys on light soaking on the device physics of the a-Si and a-(Si,Ge) cells are examined. It is shown that both the decrease in mobility-lifetime products and the decrease in electric field in the middle of the device contribute to the rapid decrease in fill factor. To the authors propose using a novel graded bandgap scheme, where the grading in the bandgap is in the middle of the device. The feasibility of fabricating such devices is examined
Keywords :
Ge-Si alloys; amorphous semiconductors; carrier lifetime; carrier mobility; electric fields; electrical conductivity of amorphous semiconductors and insulators; elemental semiconductors; energy gap; hydrogen; semiconductor doping; silicon; stability; Si:H; SiGe:H; amorphous semiconductors; bandgap; degradation; design; electric field; electronic properties; fill factor; light soaking; mobility-lifetime products; solar cells; stability; Amorphous silicon; Charge carrier processes; Degradation; Germanium silicon alloys; Neodymium; Photonic band gap; Photovoltaic cells; Physics; Silicon germanium; Stability;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1991., Conference Record of the Twenty Second IEEE
Conference_Location :
Las Vegas, NV
Print_ISBN :
0-87942-636-5
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.1991.169430
