Limitations of the open circuit voltage of induced junction silicon solar cells due to surface recombination

Conference · Wed Sep 01 00:00:00 EDT 1982 · Conf. Rec. IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf.; (United States)

OSTI ID:5489863

Girisch, R; Mertens, R; Van Overstraeten, R

Both theoretically and experimentally the authors investigate surface recombination under the positively charged insulator between the grating fingers in an induced-junction grating-type solar cell. The numerical solution for the recombination current as a function of internal voltage in the air-insulator-silicon system has been obtained using generalized equations. The authors investigate the impact of fixed insulator charge, the distribution and density of interface states on the recombination current. In order to verify the calculations they developed a grating-type cell with a semi-transparant electrode. In this structure the amount of inversion layer charge can be controlled by the voltage applied to the electrode. The authors show that surface recombination may become a limiting mechanism in reaching high open circuit voltages; that high open circuit voltages are possible provided a proper combination is chosen of insulator charge and interface state density; and that even when the interface state density increases linearly with the fixed insulator charge, the device performance improves with increasing insulator charge.

• Research Organization: ESAT Laboratory-Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Kardinaal Mercierlaan 94, 3030 Heverlee
• OSTI ID: 5489863
• Report Number(s): CONF-820906-
• Journal Information: Conf. Rec. IEEE Photovoltaic Spec. Conf.; (United States), Conference: 16. IEEE photovoltaics specialists conference, San Diego, CA, USA, 28 Sep 1982
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
RECOMBINATION
CHARGE DENSITY
ELECTRIC POTENTIAL
ELECTRICAL INSULATORS
ELECTRODES
EQUATIONS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
INTERFACES
JUNCTIONS
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
PERFORMANCE
PHOTOCURRENTS
THEORETICAL DATA
CURRENTS
DATA
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
INFORMATION
NUMERICAL DATA
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion