Role of film thickness in amorphous silicon solar cell characterization

Author

McElheny, J. ; Nag, S.S. ; Fonash, S.J. ; Wronski, C.R. ; Bennett, M. ; Arya, R.

Author_Institution

Center for Electron. Mater. & Process., Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

21-25 May 1990

Firstpage

1459

Abstract

The collection efficiencies of hydrogenated amorphous silicon Schottky barrier structures, were measured as a function of thickness in both the annealed and light-soaked states. It was found that the spectral dependence of collection efficiency is virtually independent of light-soaking in structures whose thickness is comparable to that of typical solar cells. However, these effects are clearly discernible on thick cell structures and offer a powerful tool to obtain information about carrier generation and recombination kinetics associated with the intrinsic material and interface effects. The results are discussed using a model based on first principles which makes it possible to investigate the effects of film thickness on material and solar cell characterization

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; elemental semiconductors; hydrogen; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; Schottky barrier structures; amorphous Si:H solar cells; carrier generation; collection efficiencies; interface effects; intrinsic material; light-soaking; recombination kinetics; semiconductor thin films; Amorphous silicon; Annealing; Degradation; Optical films; Photovoltaic cells; Schottky barriers; Semiconductor films; Stability; Thickness measurement; Wavelength measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1990., Conference Record of the Twenty First IEEE

Conference_Location

Kissimmee, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1990.111851

Filename

111851