Light-induced lifetime degradation in high-performance multicrystalline silicon: Detailed kinetics of the defect activation

authored by

Dennis Bredemeier, Dominic C. Walter, Jan Schmidt

Abstract

We examine the defect activation kinetics in block-cast high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HP mc-Si) under illumination at elevated temperature. Our lifetime analysis shows that the observed light-induced lifetime degradation consists of two separate stages: a fast stage followed by a slow stage. Our experiments reveal that both degradation stages can be fitted using a sum of two exponential decay functions. The resulting degradation rate constants depend both on the temperature and the light intensity applied during degradation. For the fast component, we determine an activation energy of (0.89 ± 0.04) eV from an Arrhenius plot of the degradation rate and for the slow component we determine a value of (0.94 ± 0.06) eV. The activation energies are relatively large, leading to a very pronounced dependence of the degradation rates on temperature. We also observe that both degradation rates show a linear dependence on the applied light intensity during degradation in the examined intensity range between 0.25 and 1.5 suns.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Solid State Physics
Solar Energy Section

External Organisation(s)

Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH)

Type

Article

Journal

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

Volume

173

Pages

2-5

No. of pages

4

ISSN

0927-0248

Publication date

12.2017

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Surfaces, Coatings and Films

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2017.08.007 (Access: Closed)