Internal Electric Field Profile of A-Si:H And A-Sige:H Solar Cells

Abstract

ABSTRACTBy using the transient-null-current method, we have measured the internal electric field profiles Ei(x) near the p/i interface for two groups of solar cells: (a) a-Si:H p-i-n solar cells with varied i-layer thicknesses, and (b) a-SiGe:H cells with varied Ge content. When using an exponential function of Ei(x) to fit the experimental results, we obtained the field strength at the p/i interface E0, the screening length Lo, and the density of defect states Nd in the i-layer. The thinner the i-layer, the stronger the field strength obtained. For i-layer thickness increasing from 0.1 to 0.5 μm, the field strength E0 decreases from 1.15×105 to 2.0×104 V/cm; Lo decreases from 0.89 to 0.14 μm; and Nd is 3-4×1016 (cm3eV)−1. For the a-SiGe:H cells, as the Ge content increases from 40 to 55 %, E0 increases from 9.3×104 to 1.2×105 V/cm. The correlation of the internal electric field parameters with the cell‘s performance is discussed.