The role of interfaces in the end-of-life performance of a-Si:H solar cells

Author

Vasanth, K. ; Wagner, S. ; Caputo, D. ; Bennett, M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Princeton Univ., NJ, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1994

fDate

5-9 Dec 1994

Firstpage

488

Abstract

We address the question of interfacial contribution to the end-of-life performance of a-Si:H solar cells by focusing on the p/i interface with a comprehensive set of experimental and modeling tools. To separate interfacial from bulk defects we light-soaked a thickness series of cells with i-layers from 0.2 μm to 1.0 μm. The degradation of the thickness series shows that there is no extra interfacial contribution to efficiency loss. We also soaked cells with 1.0 μm i-layers on specular substrates with blue and red light. The change in their quantum efficiency spectra also shows that the p/i interface does not degrade more than the bulk. Using the numerical model AMPS we show that light-soaking can be modeled without invoking extra interface losses

Keywords

Staebler-Wronski effect; amorphous semiconductors; crystal defects; elemental semiconductors; hydrogen; losses; optical saturable absorption; silicon; solar cells; 0.2 to 1 mum; AMPS numerical model; Si:H; a-Si:H solar cells; blue light; bulk defects; efficiency loss; end-of-life performance; i-layers; interfacial defects; light-soaking; p/i interface; quantum efficiency spectra; red light; specular substrates; Circuits; Degradation; Geometry; Loss measurement; Numerical models; Performance loss; Photovoltaic cells; Substrates; Transistors; Zinc oxide;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1460-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520004

Filename

520004