Light-induced degradation and metastable-state recovery with reaction kinetics modeling in boron-doped Czochralski silicon solar cells

Kim, Soo Min; Chun, Seungju; Bae, Suhyun; Park, Seungeun; Lee, Hae-seok; Kim, Donghwan; Kang, Min Gu; Song, Hee-eun; Kang, Yoonmook

doi:10.1063/1.4894289

Title: Light-induced degradation and metastable-state recovery with reaction kinetics modeling in boron-doped Czochralski silicon solar cells

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

Solar cells fabricated from boron-doped p-type Czochralski silicon suffer from light-induced degradation that can lower the conversion efficiency by up to 10% relative. When solar cells are exposed to temperatures between 100 °C and 200 °C under illumination, regeneration, in which the minority carrier lifetime is gradually recovered, occurs after the initial light-induced degradation. We studied the light-induced degradation and regeneration process using carrier injection within a design chamber and observed open-circuit voltage trends at various sample temperatures. We proposed a cyclic reaction kinetics model to more precisely analyze the degradation and recovery phenomenon. Our model incorporated the reaction paths that were not counted in the original model between the three states (annealed, degradation, and regeneration). We calculated a rate constant for each reaction path based on the proposed model, extracted an activation energy for each reaction using these rate constants at various temperatures, and calculated activation energies of redegradation and the stabilization reaction.

Authors:

Kim, Soo Min; Chun, Seungju; Bae, Suhyun; Park, Seungeun; Lee, Hae-seok; Kim, Donghwan ^[1]; Kang, Min Gu; Song, Hee-eun ^[2]; Kang, Yoonmook ^[3]

Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea University, Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 136-701 (Korea, Republic of)
Korea Institute of Energy Research, 152 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-343 (Korea, Republic of)
KU-KIST Green School, Graduate School of Energy and Environment, Korea University, Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 136-701 (Korea, Republic of)

Publication Date:: Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 EDT 2014

OSTI Identifier:: 22310987

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Applied Physics Letters

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 105; Journal Issue: 8; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; ACTIVATION ENERGY; ANNEALING; BORON ADDITIONS; CARRIER LIFETIME; CARRIERS; COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION; DOPED MATERIALS; EFFICIENCY; ELECTRIC POTENTIAL; METASTABLE STATES; P-TYPE CONDUCTORS; REACTION KINETICS; REGENERATION; SILICON SOLAR CELLS; STABILIZATION; VISIBLE RADIATION

Citation Formats


                    Kim, Soo Min, Chun, Seungju, Bae, Suhyun, Park, Seungeun, Lee, Hae-seok, Kim, Donghwan, Kang, Min Gu, Song, Hee-eun, and Kang, Yoonmook. Light-induced degradation and metastable-state recovery with reaction kinetics modeling in boron-doped Czochralski silicon solar cells.  United States: N. p., 2014. 
        Web.  doi:10.1063/1.4894289.

Copy to clipboard


                    Kim, Soo Min, Chun, Seungju, Bae, Suhyun, Park, Seungeun, Lee, Hae-seok, Kim, Donghwan, Kang, Min Gu, Song, Hee-eun, & Kang, Yoonmook. Light-induced degradation and metastable-state recovery with reaction kinetics modeling in boron-doped Czochralski silicon solar cells.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4894289

Copy to clipboard


                    Kim, Soo Min, Chun, Seungju, Bae, Suhyun, Park, Seungeun, Lee, Hae-seok, Kim, Donghwan, Kang, Min Gu, Song, Hee-eun, and Kang, Yoonmook. 2014.  
        "Light-induced degradation and metastable-state recovery with reaction kinetics modeling in boron-doped Czochralski silicon solar cells".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4894289.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_22310987,

  title        = {Light-induced degradation and metastable-state recovery with reaction kinetics modeling in boron-doped Czochralski silicon solar cells},

  author       = {Kim, Soo Min and Chun, Seungju and Bae, Suhyun and Park, Seungeun and Lee, Hae-seok and Kim, Donghwan and Kang, Min Gu and Song, Hee-eun and Kang, Yoonmook},

  abstractNote = {Solar cells fabricated from boron-doped p-type Czochralski silicon suffer from light-induced degradation that can lower the conversion efficiency by up to 10% relative. When solar cells are exposed to temperatures between 100 °C and 200 °C under illumination, regeneration, in which the minority carrier lifetime is gradually recovered, occurs after the initial light-induced degradation. We studied the light-induced degradation and regeneration process using carrier injection within a design chamber and observed open-circuit voltage trends at various sample temperatures. We proposed a cyclic reaction kinetics model to more precisely analyze the degradation and recovery phenomenon. Our model incorporated the reaction paths that were not counted in the original model between the three states (annealed, degradation, and regeneration). We calculated a rate constant for each reaction path based on the proposed model, extracted an activation energy for each reaction using these rate constants at various temperatures, and calculated activation energies of redegradation and the stabilization reaction.},

  doi          = {10.1063/1.4894289},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22310987},
  journal      = {Applied Physics Letters},

  issn         = {0003-6951},

  number       = 8,

  volume       = 105,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 EDT 2014},

  month        = {Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 EDT 2014}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4894289

Other availability

Find in Google Scholar

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar records in OSTI.GOV collections:

Atomic structure of light-induced efficiency-degrading defects in boron-doped Czochralski silicon solar cells

Journal Article Meyer, Abigail; Taylor, P.; Venuti, Michael; ... - Energy & Environmental Science

Boron-doped Czochralski (Cz) Si is the most commonly used semiconductor in the fabrication of solar cells. The minority carrier lifetime of boron-doped Cz Si decreases upon exposure to light due to B–O-related defects, which reduce the performance of ~10⁹ solar modules worldwide. Using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), we have identified the spin-active paramagnetic signatures of this phenomenon and gained insights into its microscopic mechanism. We found a distinct defect signature, which diminished when the degraded sample was annealed. The second signature, a broad magnetic field spectrum, due to the unionized B acceptors, was present in the annealed state but vanishedmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1039/d1ee01788h

Full Text Available
Influence of Tabula Rasa on Process- and Light-Induced Degradation of Solar Cells Fabricated From Czochralski Silicon

Journal Article Meyer, Abigail; LaSalvia, Vincenzo; Nemeth, William; ... - IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics

Monocrystalline Si solar cells are fabricated from Czochralski (Cz) Si, which contains 10¹⁷–10¹⁸ cm^-3 oxygen atoms. Cz Si undergoes degradation during high-temperature thermal processing steps, such as dopant diffusion to form the p - n junction. This degradation in the bulk minority carrier lifetime can be related to the formation of oxygen precipitates. We found that a high-temperature annealing process known as tabula rasa (TR) not only mitigates process-induced degradation via oxygen precipitate nuclei dissolution, but also modifies subsequent light-induced degradation. We report on the bulk carrier lifetime of n - and p -type Cz Si after TR, which homogenizesmore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1109/jphotov.2020.3020214

Full Text Available
Understanding the Mechanism of Light and Elevated Temperature Induced Degradation of p-type Silicon Solar Cells (Final Report)

Technical Report Agarwal, Sumit

Light- and elevated-temperature-induced degradation (LeTID) was first discovered in multicrystalline Si (mc-Si) solar cells and was initially attributed to metal impurities. Later, LeTID was reported in Czochralski (Cz) and float-zone (FZ) Si, and is considered as an important efficiency loss mechanism in p-type passivated emitter rear contact (p-PERC) Cz Si solar cells. LeTID causes ~10% relative and permeant efficiency losses in these cells in warmer climate regions where the module temperature is > 50 °C. Unlike light-induced degradation (LID), which is also observed in p-PERC cells, LeTID is slower and takes weeks to months in the field to saturate. Anothermore »« less
https://doi.org/10.2172/2008472

Full Text Available
Spectroscopic Investigation of Shallow Hole Traps in Ga- and B-doped Czochralski Silicon: Insight into Light-Induced Degradation

Journal Article Meyer, Abigail; Abdul Fattah, Tarek; Taylor, P.; ... - ACS Applied Energy Materials

We report the minority carrier lifetime in B-doped Czochralski (Cz) Si declines upon carrier injection due to light-induced degradation (LID), which is attributed to the formation of a recombination-active boron-oxygen complex. Ga-doped Cz Si does not undergo LID. Previously, we showed that B-doped Cz Si undergoes a transition from paramagnetic to diamagnetic due to LID. Herein, we show that Ga-doped Cz Si remains paramagnetic upon carrier injection. This suggests that either the shallow hole traps that are formed in B-doped Cz Si are absent in Ga-doped Cz Si, or the negative-U centers in Ga-doped Cz Si do not transform intomore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1021/acsaem.2c02852

Full Text Available
Evidence for the role of hydrogen in the stabilization of minority carrier lifetime in boron-doped Czochralski silicon

Journal Article Hallam, B.; Chan, C.; Abbott, M.; ... - Applied Physics Letters

This study demonstrates that the presence of a hydrogen source during fast-firing is critical to the regeneration of B-O defects and that is it not a pure thermally based mechanism or due to plasma exposure. Boron-doped p-type wafers were fired with and without hydrogen-rich silicon nitride (SiN{sub x}:H) films present during the fast-firing process. After an initial light-induced degradation step, only wafers fired with the SiN{sub x}:H films present were found to undergo permanent and complete recovery of lifetime during subsequent illuminated annealing. In comparison, wafers fired bare, i.e., without SiN{sub x}:H films present during firing, were found to demonstratemore »« less
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4919385

Similar Records