A characterisation of electronic properties of alkaline texturized polycrystalline silicon solar cells using IBIC

Journal article, 2011

In this study, electronic properties of p-type alkaline texturized polycrystalline silicon solar cells were investigated using ion beam induced charge (IBIC) analysis. With this technique, quantitative information on electronic diffusion lengths and average electronic capture cross sections of lattice defects generated by high energy protons were obtained. Angular-resolved IBIC analysis was used to quantify the electronic diffusion lengths. For this purpose, the experimental data were fitted using a simulation based on the Ramo-Shockley-Gunn (RSG) theorem and the assumption of an abrupt pn-junction. In order to determine the average electronic capture cross section of proton-induced lattice defects, the loss of charge collection efficiency (CCE) was plotted vs. the accumulated ion fluence. As will be demonstrated, a simple model based on charge carrier diffusion and Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination is able to fit the CCE loss well. Furthermore, spatially and energetically highly resolved IBIC-maps of grain boundaries were recorded. A comparison with PIXE-maps shows that there is no correlation observable between CCE variations at grain boundaries and metallic impurities within the PIXE detection limits of a few ppm. On the contrary, there is an evident correlation to the morphology of the sample's surface as was observed by comparing IBIC-maps and SEM-micrographs. These local CCE fluctuations are dominated by the interplay of charge carrier diffusion processes and the sample surface morphology.