A New Method to Measure Trap Characteristics of Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract

A new method to measure trap characteristics in crystalline silicon solar cells is presented. Important parameters of traps including energy level, total concentration of trapping centers and capture cross-section ratio of hole to electron are deduced using the Shockley—Read—Hall theory of crystalline silicon solar cells in base region. Based on the as-deduced model, these important parameters of traps are determined by measuring open-circuit voltages of silicon solar cells under monochromatic illumination in the wavelength range 500–1050 nm with and without bias light. The effects of wavelength and intensity of bias light on the measurement results are also discussed. The measurement system used in our experiments is very similar to a quantum efficiency test system which is commercially available. Therefore, our method is very convenient and valuable for detecting deep level traps in crystalline silicon solar cells.