Fundamental boron-oxygen-related carrier lifetime limit in mono- And multicrystalline silicon

authored by

Karsten Bothe, Ron Sinton, Jan Schmidt

Abstract

Boron-doped crystalline silicon is the most relevant material in today's solar cell production. Following the trend towards higher efficiencies, silicon substrate materials with high carrier lifetimes are becoming more and more important. In silicon with sufficiently low metal impurity concentrations, the carrier lifetime is ultimately limited by a metastable boron-oxygen-related defect, which forms under minority-minoritycarrier-carrier injection. We have analysed 49 different Czochralski-grown silicon materials of numerous suppliers with various boron and oxygen concentrations. On the basis of our measured lifetime data, we have derived a universal empirical parameterisation predicting the stable carrier lifetime from the boron and oxygen content in the crystalline silicon material. For multicrystalline silicon it is shown that the predicted carrier lifetime can be regarded as a fundamental upper limit.

External Organisation(s)

Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH)
Sinton Consulting, Inc.

Type

Article

Journal

Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications

Volume

13

Pages

287-296

No. of pages

10

ISSN

1062-7995

Publication date

06.2005

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment, Condensed Matter Physics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.586 (Access: Unknown)