Nonuniformity Characterization of CdTe Solar Cells Using LBIC

Author

Geisthardt, Russell M. ; Sites, James R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO, USA

Volume

4

Issue

4

fYear

2014

fDate

Jul-14

Firstpage

1114

Lastpage

1118

Abstract

Light-beam-induced current measurements have been used for characterization of nonuniformities in cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells. Spectral dependence, voltage-bias dependence, and resolution dependence are used for detailed characterization of nonuniformities in junction quality, window thickness, and absorber band gap. These tools were applied to CdTe cells and used to identify thin regions in the CdS layer, regions of modified band gap, and weak diode regions. In addition, an improved procedure has allowed for shorter measurement times without discernable loss of accuracy.

Keywords

II-VI semiconductors; OBIC; cadmium compounds; electric current measurement; energy gap; semiconductor device measurement; solar absorber-convertors; solar cells; CdTe; CdTe solar cells; LBIC; absorber band gap; band gap; diode regions; junction quality; light-beam-induced current measurements; measurement time; nonuniformity characterization; resolution dependence; spectral dependence; voltage-bias dependence; window thickness; Current measurement; Measurement by laser beam; Photovoltaic cells; Photovoltaic systems; Time measurement; Wavelength measurement; Cadmium telluride (CdTe); characterization; light-beam-induced current (LBIC); nonuniformity; photovoltaic (PV) cells;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-3381

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JPHOTOV.2014.2314575

Filename

6797857