Local photocarrier dynamics in CdTe solar cells under optical and electron beam excitations

Published

December 16, 2015

Author(s)

Heayoung Yoon, Paul M. Haney, Yohan Yoon, Sang M. An, James I. Basham, Nikolai Zhitenev

Abstract

We investigate local carrier dynamics in n-CdS / p-CdTe solar cells, where the electron-hole pairs are generated by either near-field optical illumination or highly focused electron beam excitation. A focused ion milling process was used to prepare a smooth surface and cross-sections of the devices. The spatially resolved photocurrent images confirm high carrier collection efficiencies at grain boundaries. An analytical model was used to extract material parameters at the level of single grains. We find that the minority carrier diffusion length and device parameters extracted from the local measurement techniques are in excellent agreement, but can be different determined from macro-scale measurements.

Proceedings Title

Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2015 IEEE 42nd

Conference Dates

June 14-19, 2015

Conference Location

New Orleans, LA, US

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356020

Local Download

Keywords

EBIC, NSOM, CdTe, Photovoltaics, grain boundary, local measurement

Citation

Yoon, H. , Haney, P. , Yoon, Y. , An, S. , Basham, J. and Zhitenev, N. (2015), Local photocarrier dynamics in CdTe solar cells under optical and electron beam excitations, Photovoltaic Specialist Conference (PVSC), 2015 IEEE 42nd, New Orleans, LA, US, [online], https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2015.7356020, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=918751 (Accessed October 11, 2025)