Investigation of the Electronic Transport in Pin Solar Cells Based on Microcrystalline Silicon by 2D Numerical Modeling

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe investigated the transport and recombination behavior of pin solar cells based on micro- crystalline silicon (μc-Si:H). A comparison of experimental and simulated data of the dark I/V- curves, the I/V-behavior under AM1.5 illumination as well as the quantum efficiency reveals an enhanced defect density in μc-Si:H compared to c-Si which could be located as defect rich grain boundaries around the crystallites. Further, in case there is amorphous phase in the material, the distribution of a-Si:H around the crystallites is unlikely, since the electronic transport properties are disturbed, whereas an arrangement in the shape of extended areas does not affect the transport behavior significantly due to occurrence of percolation.