The role of interfaces in the end-of-life performance of a-Si:H solar cells

Conference · Sat Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1994

OSTI ID:208109

Vasanth, K; Wagner, S ^[1]; Caputo, D ^[2]; Bennett, M ^[3]

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1. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
2. Univ. La Sapienza, Rome (Italy). Dipt. di Elettronica
3. Solarex, Newtown, PA (United States). Thin Film Div.

The authors address the question of interfacial contribution to the end-of-life performance of a-Si:H solar cells by focusing on the p/i interface with a comprehensive set of experimental and modeling tools. To separate interfacial from bulk defects the authors light-soaked a thickness series of cells with i-layers from 0.2 {micro}m to 1.0 {micro}m. The degradation of the thickness series shows that there is no extra interfacial contribution to efficiency loss. The authors also soaked cells with 1.0 {micro}m i-layers on specular substrates with blue an red light. The change in their quantum efficiency spectra also shows that the p/i interface does not degrade more than the bulk. Using the numerical model AMPS they show that light-soaking can be modeled without invoking extra interface losses.

• OSTI ID: 208109
• Report Number(s): CONF-941203--; ISBN 0-7803-1459-X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
A CODES
AGE DEPENDENCE
AMORPHOUS STATE
COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN
ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE
INTERFACES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PERFORMANCE
SILICON CARBIDES
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SILVER
TIN OXIDES
ZINC OXIDES