Interlaboratory Study of Eddy-Current Measurement of Excess-Carrier Recombination Lifetime

Blum, Adrienne L.; Swirhun, James S.; Sinton, Ronald A.; Yan, Fei; Herasimenka, Stanislau; Roth, Thomas; Lauer, Kevin; Haunschild, Jonas; Lim, Bianca; Bothe, Karsten; Hameiri, Ziv; Seipel, Bjoern; Xiong, Rentian; Dhamrin, M.; Murphy, John D.

doi:10.1109/jphotov.2013.2284375

Cited by 53 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…70. The effective minority carrier lifetime for a silicon wafer as a whole can be expressed as the reciprocal sum of the bulk and the surface components…”

Section: A Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the c-Si/SiO2 interface recombination parameters from photo-conductance decay measurements

Wilshaw

2017

Journal of Applied Physics

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The recombination of electric charge carriers at semiconductor surfaces continues to be a limiting factor in achieving high performance optoelectronic devices, including solar cells, laser diodes, and photodetectors. The theoretical model and a solution algorithm for surface recombination have been previously reported. However, their successful application to experimental data for a wide range of both minority excess carrier concentrations and dielectric fixed charge densities has not previously been shown. Here, a parametrisation for the semiconductor-dielectric interface charge Qit is used in a Shockley-Read-Hall extended formalism to describe recombination at the c-Si/SiO2 interface, and estimate the physical parameters relating to the interface trap density Dit, and the electron and hole capture cross-sections σn and σp. This approach gives an excellent description of the experimental data without the need to invoke a surface damage region in the c-Si/SiO2 system. Band-gap tail states have been observed to limit strongly the effectiveness of field effect passivation. This approach provides a methodology to determine interface recombination parameters in any semiconductor-insulator system using macro scale measuring techniques.

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“…70. The effective minority carrier lifetime for a silicon wafer as a whole can be expressed as the reciprocal sum of the bulk and the surface components…”

Section: A Experimental Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the c-Si/SiO2 interface recombination parameters from photo-conductance decay measurements

Wilshaw

2017

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Both in Wan et al and in this study, experimental effective lifetime is seen to exceed the assumed radiative and Auger limit. Error bars for the effective lifetime measured here were calculated considering the accuracy reported in and included in Fig. a.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…(18) in using B rel from and B low from ) and τ eff measured experimentally using a Sinton photoconductance decay (PCD) instrument. A WCT 120 instrument was used with an accuracy of 8% as reported in . This accuracy was the main source of error and was used here to quantify the error bars in the reported data.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extremely low surface recombination in 1 Ω cm n‐type monocrystalline silicon

Reichel

Hermle

Wilshaw

2016

Physica Rapid Research Ltrs

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A key requirement in the recent development of highly efficient silicon solar cells is the outstanding passivation of their surfaces. In this work, plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition of a triple layer dielectric consisting of amorphous silicon, silicon oxide and silicon nitride, charged extrinsically using corona, has been used to demonstrate extremely low surface recombination. Assuming Richter's parametrisation for bulk lifetime, an effective surface recombination velocity Seff = 0.1 cm/s at Δn = 1015 cm–3 has been obtained for planar, float zone, n -type, 1 Ω cm silicon. This equates to a saturation current density J0s = 0.3 fA/cm2, and a 1-sun implied open-circuit voltage of 738 mV. These surface recombination parameters are among the lowest reported for 1 Ω cm c-Si. A combination of impedance spectroscopy and corona-lifetime measurements shows that the outstanding chemical passivation is due to the small hole capture cross section for states at the interface between the Si and a-Si layer which are hydrogenated during nitride deposition

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“…2 respectively. Lifetime values are assumed to be accurate to ± 8% [21]. The starting (as-grown) average bulk lifetimes vary substantially with sample location from the block.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low Temperature Internal Gettering of Bulk Defects in Silicon Photovoltaic Materials

Al‐Amin

Murphy

2015

SSP

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Abstract. Multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) substrates are widely used for photovoltaic cells. The minority carrier lifetime in mc-Si is affected by recombination associated with metallic impurities in many forms, such as point-like defects, precipitates and bound to or precipitated at structural defects such as dislocations. We have studied the effect of low temperature annealing on the lifetime and bulk iron concentration in as-received mc-Si wafers from different locations within a block. Lifetime measurements are made using a temporary iodine-ethanol surface passivation technique to minimize the occurrence of bulk hydrogenation which often occurs from dielectric films. In good wafers from the middle of the block the lifetime is reduced by annealing at 400 °C and 500 °C in a way which does not correlate with changes in bulk iron concentration. Lifetime improvements occur in relatively poor samples from the top and bottom of the block annealed at 300 °C, and also in samples from the bottom annealed at 400 °C. The improvement in bottom wafers correlates with iron loss from the bulk. Our work shows that under some conditions the lifetime in relatively poor as-grown wafers can be improved by low temperature internal gettering.

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Interlaboratory Study of Eddy-Current Measurement of Excess-Carrier Recombination Lifetime

Cited by 53 publications

References 8 publications

On the c-Si/SiO2 interface recombination parameters from photo-conductance decay measurements

On the c-Si/SiO2 interface recombination parameters from photo-conductance decay measurements

Extremely low surface recombination in 1 Ω cm n‐type monocrystalline silicon

Low Temperature Internal Gettering of Bulk Defects in Silicon Photovoltaic Materials

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