MINORITY CARRIER LIFETIME IN MONOCRYSTALLINE, POLYCRYSTALLINE AND AMORPHOUS SILICON SOLAR CELLS USING PHOTO-INDUCED OPEN-CIRCUIT VOLTAGE DECAY (OCVD) TECHNIQUE

Abstract

The photoinduced open-circuit voltage decay technique was used to investigate the minority carrier lifetime in several silicon solar cell samples. This convenient investigation technique allows a fast and accurate determination of the diffusion length of minority carriers in semiconductor materials and is an important technique in optimizing the solar cell performance. The quality and the efficiency of silicon solar cells depend on the minority diffusion length and this value could be calculated for monocrystalline, polycrystalline and amorphous silicon solar cells. The values obtained at room temperature are in good
agreement with reference values.