Interpretation of thin-film polycrystalline solar cell capacitance

Author

Mauk, Peter H. ; Tavakolian, Hossein ; Sites, James R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO, USA

Volume

37

Issue

2

fYear

1990

fDate

2/1/1990 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

422

Lastpage

427

Abstract

Variation of thin-film polycrystalline solar cell capacitance with frequency and voltage is used to determine (1) carrier density, and hence Fermi-level position, in the more lightly doped semiconductor, (2) width of the intrinsic layer often found adjacent to a polycrystalline heterojunction, and (3) density of extraneous states at the Fermi level in the depletion region. For CuInSe₂ cells from three laboratories, the values extracted show a relatively modest dependence on temperature and light intensity. Reliable interpretation of the capacitance measurements requires continual monitoring of actual junction voltage, the real to imaginary impedance ratio, and the degree of voltage sweep hysteresis

Keywords

capacitance; copper compounds; solar cells; ternary semiconductors; CuInSe₂ cells; Fermi-level position; capacitance measurements; carrier density; density of extraneous states; dependence on temperature; depletion region; frequency dependence; interpretation; junction voltage; light intensity dependence; lightly doped semiconductor; phase angle; polycrystalline heterojunction; real to imaginary impedance ratio; solar cell capacitance; thin-film polycrystalline solar cell; voltage dependence; voltage sweep hysteresis; Capacitance; Charge carrier density; Frequency; Heterojunctions; Laboratories; Photovoltaic cells; Semiconductor thin films; Temperature dependence; Transistors; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/16.46377

Filename

46377