Modeling of the grain boundary potential for poly-Si [solar cells]

Author

Chen, Z. ; Burton, L.

Author_Institution

Bradley Dept. of Electr. Eng., Virginia Polytech. Inst. & State Univ., Blacksburg, VA, USA

fYear

1990

fDate

21-25 May 1990

Firstpage

731

Abstract

New relations for the polysilicon grain boundary (GB) potential barrier height (V_g) for both the dark and light cases are developed. The dependencies of electron lifetime (τ), mobility (μ), and diffusion length (L) on V_g, depth, illumination level, and grain size are discussed. It is shown that V_g increases with depth under solar illumination, whereas the transport parameters decrease drastically. These results also show that under high-level illumination, V _g is reduced and the minority transport parameters are improved significantly, with a flatband condition (V_g=0) appearing under certain conditions

Keywords

carrier lifetime; elemental semiconductors; grain boundaries; grain size; minority carriers; silicon; solar cells; Si; depth; diffusion length; electron lifetime; grain boundary potential; grain size; illumination level; minority transport parameters; mobility; polycrystalline; potential barrier height; semiconductor; solar illumination; Doping; Electron mobility; Grain boundaries; Grain size; Impurities; Lighting; Optical losses; Photovoltaic cells; Poisson equations; Space charge;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, 1990., Conference Record of the Twenty First IEEE

Conference_Location

Kissimmee, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PVSC.1990.111717

Filename

111717