A study on the microscopical and macroscopical effects of hydrogenation on the performance of multicrystalline solar cells
- IMEC, Leuven (Belgium)
The grains in the multicrystalline materials used nowadays are typically in the order of a mm or more. In the present study the improvement of different materials (Eurosolare material and EMC material from Sumitomo Sitix) is studied. The method of hydrogenation used consists of a hydrogenation in an RF-plasma. The treatment is from the front or back side of the substrate. The beneficial effect of hydrogenation will be illustrated by I-V-measurements under AM1.5 illumination, dark I-V-measurements and extraction of minority carrier lifetime by the microwave-detected photoconductive decay method. The measurement on the full solar cell reveals only macroscopic and hence lumped consequences of the hydrogenation. Additional insight was gained from measurements on small mesa-type diodes. In this way the authors can discriminate between diodes with a grain boundary running through the active device and devices fully contained within one grain. This allows the effects of the hydrogenation on the grain boundaries and the intra-grain defects to split. Dark I-V-measurements and Deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) were used to characterize the diodes in the Eurosolare material. The DLTS-spectra revealed a broad band for the diodes with a grain boundary running through them. This peak completely disappeared on samples which received a direct H-plasma treatment from the front side.
- OSTI ID:
- 191087
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-941203-; ISBN 0-7803-1459-X; TRN: IM9610%%88
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 1. world conference on photovoltaic energy conversion, Waikoloa, HI (United States), 5-9 Dec 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of 1994 IEEE first world conference on photovoltaic energy conversion: Conference record of the twenty-fourth IEEE photovoltaic specialists conference -- 1994. Volume 2; PB: 1268 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
FABRICATION
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
SEMICONDUCTOR DIODES
SILICON
GRAIN BOUNDARIES
HYDROGEN
METALLURGICAL EFFECTS
TITANIUM
PALLADIUM
SILVER
ALUMINIUM
DOPED MATERIALS
PHOSPHORUS
BORON
DEEP LEVEL TRANSIENT SPECTROSCOPY
PASSIVATION
DIFFUSION
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
CURRENT DENSITY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA