Characterization of microcrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells

Author

Brammer, Torsten ; Stiebig, Helmut

Author_Institution

Inst. of Photovoltaics, Forschungszentrum Julich, Germany

fYear

2002

fDate

19-24 May 2002

Firstpage

1274

Lastpage

1277

Abstract

Absorber layers of microcrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition are characterized regarding the product of the recombination lifetime and the mobility (μτ). The characterization is based on a comparison of experimentally determined solar cell characteristics with results from numerical device simulations. Evaluation of the voltage dependent quantum efficiency indicates a strong dependence of μτ on the hydrogen dilution during the deposition. Close to the transition region to amorphous growth where the highest solar cell efficiencies are observed μ_eτ is maximum within the crystalline deposition regime and equals 2·10^-7cm²N.

Keywords

carrier mobility; electron-hole recombination; elemental semiconductors; hydrogen; plasma CVD coatings; semiconductor device models; semiconductor thin films; silicon; solar cells; μc-Si thin-film solar cells; Si:H; absorber layers; amorphous growth; carrier mobility; crystalline deposition regime; highest solar cell efficiencies; plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition; recombination lifetime; transition region; voltage dependent quantum efficiency; Chemical vapor deposition; Photovoltaic cells; Plasma chemistry; Plasma devices; Plasma properties; Plasma simulation; Radiative recombination; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Sputtering;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 2002. Conference Record of the Twenty-Ninth IEEE

ISSN

1060-8371

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7471-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2002.1190841

Filename

1190841