Scanning electron microscopy analysis of defect clusters in multicrystalline solar grade silicon solar cells

Author

Berthod, Charly ; Odden, Jan Ove ; Saetre, Tor Oskar

Author_Institution

Univ. of Agder, Grimstad, Norway

fYear

2014

fDate

8-13 June 2014

Firstpage

2947

Lastpage

2950

Abstract

Solar cells from an identical commercial manufacturing unit have been investigated by electroluminescence to first detect the defect clusters. A further analysis has been done by scanning electron microscopy in secondary electron imaging mode to understand the propagation mechanism of defects. It appears that defect cluster boundaries can be very sharp or spread in the bulk with little apparent effect on the overall cell efficiency. And it is shown that grain boundaries act clearly as arrests to further propagation of these defects.

Keywords

electroluminescence; elemental semiconductors; grain boundaries; scanning electron microscopy; silicon; solar cells; Si; defect clusters; electroluminescence; grain boundaries; multicrystalline solar grade silicon solar cells; scanning electron microscopy; secondary electron imaging mode; Acceleration; Electroluminescence; Grain boundaries; Photovoltaic cells; Scanning electron microscopy; Silicon; charge carrier lifetime; electroluminescence; photovoltaic cells; scanning electron microscopy; silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2014 IEEE 40th

Conference_Location

Denver, CO

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.2014.6925549

Filename

6925549