학술논문

Simultaneous Examination of Grain-Boundary Potential, Recombination, and Photocurrent in CdTe Solar Cells Using Diverse Nanometer-Scale Imaging
Document Type
Conference
Source
2017 IEEE 44th Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC) Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2017 IEEE 44th. :1312-1316 Jun, 2017
Subject
Aerospace
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Engineering Profession
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Photonics and Electrooptics
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Electric potential
II-VI semiconductor materials
Cadmium compounds
Photoconductivity
Photovoltaic cells
Current measurement
Spontaneous emission
CdTe solar cell
Grain boundary
Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM)
Electron-beam induced current (EBIC)
Cathodoluminescence (CL)
Language
Abstract
We report on the simultaneous measurements of Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM), cathodoluminescence (CL), and electron-beam induced current (EBIC) for hundreds of grain boundaries (GBs) after different processing steps. The GB potential steadily increases from tens of mV for as-deposited samples, 80 mV after the C1 treatment, to about 120 mV after Cu diffusion (C1+Cu). The latter is consistent with the emergence of deep Cu defects observed in CL GB spectra. At the same time, EBIC indicates that GB photocurrent is enhanced by 0% to 50% after Cu is introduced. However, this increase is very modest relative to expectations based on computational modeling and the measured GB potential. The EBIC enhancement coincides with increased GB recombination observed by CL. A plausible explanation is that GB defects introduce GB potentials and increase GB recombination; this can reconcile the CL, EBIC, and KPFM data.