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Relationships between room temperature photoluminescence and electronic quality in multicrystalline silicon

Book ·
OSTI ID:302448
;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Univ. of South Florida, Tampa, FL (United States). Center for Microelectronics Research
  2. ASE Americas Inc., Billerica, MA (United States)
The authors report here on a relationship between room temperature photoluminescence (RTPL) intensity in crystalline silicon and bulk material diffusion length improvements used to track solar cell performance. They present RTPL spectra and data on spatially resolved photoluminescence mapping over 100 cm{sup 2} area Edge-defined Film-fed Growth (EFG) multicrystalline silicon wafers subjected to solar cell processing steps. A dramatic increase of band-to-band PL intensity by more than two orders of magnitude occurs after combined phosphorus diffusion, hydrogen passivation and aluminum alloying. This indicates that a large reduction in non-radiative recombination occurs during processing steps which improve cell efficiency through bulk minority carrier lifetime upgrading.
Sponsoring Organization:
National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (United States)
OSTI ID:
302448
Report Number(s):
CONF-970953--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English