Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications
Room temperature annealing of fast states from 1 sun illumination in protocrystalline Si:H materials and solar cells
Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publication Date
12-1-2005
Journal
Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference
First Page
1536
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1109/PVSC.2005.1488436
Last Page
1539
Abstract
In order to obtain more insight into the nature of the recovery in the light induced changes at room temperature in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells the relaxation of the photocurrents in the light induced changes in protocrystalline a-Si:H thin films were investigated. Immediately upon the removal of 1 sun illumination recoveries in the photocurrents are found like those present in the currents in the dark current-voltage characteristics in corresponding p-i-n solar cells. The striking similarity between the results on thin films and the corresponding dark forward bias current-voltage characteristics of solar cells suggest that the recoveries obtained with low generation rates (5×10 15cm -3s -1) in the films are a measure of annealing kinetics of the defect states around midgap in the bulk of the films. The rates of recoveries decrease with higher carrier generation rates and the length of the light induced degradation. Results are presented which indicate that the history of creation and annealing of light induced defect states is important in determining subsequent creation and annealing kinetics. ©2005 IEEE.