Transient Ion Drift Measurements of Polycrystalline CdTe PV Devices

Author

Enzenroth, R.A. ; Barth, K.L. ; Sampath, W.S.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Eng., Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO

Volume

1

fYear

2006

fDate

38838

Firstpage

449

Lastpage

452

Abstract

The well known transient ion drift (TID) method is used to quantify the density of mobile Cu interstitial ions in polycrystalline CdTe PV cells. Average Cu_i ⁺ ion densities in optimally processed cells are 20% of the background ionized acceptor doping level. A preliminary estimate of the diffusion coefficient for Cu _i ⁺ ions in the polycrystalline CdTe absorber is D(Cu_i)=1.3E-6 [cm²/sec] times exp[-0.29 eV/(KB*T)] in the temperature range of 25degC to 55degC from TID measurements. Aspects of the TID method as pertains to practical thin film polycrystalline devices are discussed

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; cadmium compounds; copper; diffusion; impurity states; interstitials; photovoltaic cells; semiconductor thin films; 25 to 50 C; CdTe:Cu⁺; background ionized acceptor doping level; diffusion coefficient; mobile Cu interstitial ion density; polycrystalline absorber; polycrystalline semiconductor PV cells; thin film polycrystalline semiconductor PV devices; transient ion drift measurements; Capacitance; Coatings; Costs; Density measurement; Fabrication; Grain boundaries; Laboratories; Mechanical engineering; Mechanical variables measurement; Thin film devices;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE 4th World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0017-1

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0017-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.2006.279487

Filename

4059660