Title :
Recombination activity enhancement by stress in silicon
Author :
Gundel, Paul ; Schubert, Martin C. ; Heinz, Friedemann D. ; Warta, Wilhelm
Author_Institution :
Fraunhofer Inst. for Solar Energy Syst. ISE, Freiburg, Germany
Abstract :
The recombination activity of grain boundaries and precipitate colonies is analyzed with submicron spatial resolution and compared to the surrounding stress field. This analysis reveals a positive correlation between tensile stress and recombination activity and a negative correlation between compressive stress and recombination activity. This correlation can be explained by the stress induced mobility enhancement due to the strong piezoresistance of silicon. This observation could lead to a significant improvement of multicrystalline silicon solar cells by engineering the incorporated stress fields during the block casting and the solar cell processing.
Keywords :
carrier mobility; casting; elemental semiconductors; grain boundaries; piezoresistance; silicon; solar cells; block casting; compressive stress; grain boundaries; mobility enhancement; multicrystalline silicon solar cell; negative correlation; piezoresistance; positive correlation; recombination activity enhancement; stress field; submicron spatial resolution; tensile stress;
Conference_Titel :
Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC), 2010 35th IEEE
Conference_Location :
Honolulu, HI
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-5890-5
DOI :
10.1109/PVSC.2010.5616094
