Optical mapping of large area thin film solar cells

Author

Huang, Zhiquan ; Chen, Jie ; Sestak, Michelle N. ; Attygalle, Dinesh ; Dahal, Lila Raj ; Mapes, Meghan R. ; Strickle, David A. ; Kormanyos, Kenneth R. ; Salupo, Carl ; Collins, R.W.

Author_Institution

Center for Photovoltaics Innovation & Commercialization, Univ. of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

20-25 June 2010

Abstract

The mapping capability of multichannel spectro-scopic ellipsometry (SE) has been demonstrated with examples from hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) and CdTe thin film photovoltaics (PV) technologies on glass. Maps as large as 40 × 80 cm² have been obtained. For a-Si:H, maps of the bulk i-layer thickness and band gap as well as surface roughness layer thickness have been determined. For CdTe, a map of the CdS window layer thickness has been determined with the prospect of grain structure mapping. In both cases, maps of the thickness and properties of the underlying transparent conducting oxide (TCO) layers have been determined. These first results demonstrate the ability of mapping SE to guide scale-up of thin film PV deposition processes.

Keywords

cadmium compounds; ellipsometry; photovoltaic power systems; solar cells; surface roughness; thin films; CdTe; glass; hydrogenated amorphous silicon; large area thin film solar cells; multichannel spectroscopic ellipsometry; optical mapping; surface roughness layer thickness; thin film photovoltaics technologies; transparent conducting oxide layers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2010 35th IEEE

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

ISSN

0160-8371

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5890-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2010.5616069

Filename

5616069