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Electronic Characterization and Light-Induced Degradation in nc-Si:H Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

P. G. Hugger ,
Shouvik Datta ,
P. T. Erslev ,
Guozhen Yue ,
Gautam Ganguly ,
Baojie Yan ,
Jeffrey Yang ,
Subhendu Guha  and
J. D. Cohen
Shouvik Datta
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Oregon, Physics, 1371 E. 13th Avenue, Eugene, OR, 97403, United States
P. T. Erslev
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Oregon, Physics, 1371 E. 13th Avenue, Eugene, OR, 97403, United States
Guozhen Yue
Affiliation:
[email protected], United Solar Ovonics Corporation, 1100 W. Maple Road, Tory, MI, 48084, United States
Gautam Ganguly
Affiliation:
[email protected], United Solar Ovonics Corporation, 1100 W. Maple Road, Tory, MI, 48084, United States
Baojie Yan
Affiliation:
[email protected], United Solar Ovonics Corporation, 1100 W. Maple Road, Tory, MI, 48084, United States
Jeffrey Yang
Affiliation:
[email protected], United Solar Ovonics Corporation, 1100 W. Maple Road, Tory, MI, 48084, United States
Subhendu Guha
Affiliation:
[email protected], United Solar Ovonics Corporation, 1100 W. Maple Road, Tory, MI, 48084, United States
J. D. Cohen
Affiliation:
[email protected], University of Oregon, Department of Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, 97403, United States
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Abstract

The electronic properties of working nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cell devices with conversion efficiencies up to 8.6% were studied using junction capacitance methods. The set of devices examined were deposited on both specular stainless steel substrates and Ag/ZnO textured back reflectors. These devices included nc-Si:H grown under constant H2 dilution, and also with profiled H2 dilution to control the crystallite sizes and volume fraction. Transient photocapacitance and transient photocurrent spectroscopies were used to obtain sub-band-gap optical spectra. A comparison of these two kinds of spectra also allowed us to deduce the minority carrier collection fractions as a function of temperature and light-induced degradation. Light-soaking was found to cause a distinct decrease in minority carrier collection, as well as a consistent decrease in defects responding to drive-level capacitance profiling. A tentative microscopic model is proposed that accounts for these degradation effects in nc-Si:H.

Keywords

photovoltaicelectronic structureSi
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 910: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology – 2006 , 2006 , 0910-A01-05
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2006

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References

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