Multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) solar cells are an important and cost effective technology with a significant role to play in the mix of energy sources required in the future. Recent advances have led to industrial champion cell efficiencies of over 21% [1], however typical industrial cell performance is much lower, in large part due to variability in the distribution of recombination centers between mc-Si wafers. These recombination centers include impurity decorated grain boundaries and dislocations [2, 3], and act to reduce the efficiency of the solar cell by reducing the number of light generated minority carriers which are collected at the p-n junction. As such, an understanding of these defects-the elements which decorate them, their recombination activity and what processes can reduce this activity, is essential if improvements are to be made.
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