Detection of electron emission as DLTS signal in CdTe solar cells

Abstract

This work identifies an incongruity in the detection of the minority carrier signal in CdTe solar cells during the deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurement. Use of quasi-Fermi level instead of Fermi level of majority carriers to estimate the probability of emitting carriers seems to correct the ambiguity. During the experiment, signals from minority carrier traps (electron traps) were detected by using a long filling pulse time instead of an electron injection pulse. The DLTS measurements of CdTe solar cells observed a single electron trap with energy level EE1 = 0.47 eV, and two hole traps with energy levels, EH1 = 0.17 eV and EH2 = 0.27 eV. The possibility of any impact from the back contact was excluded, and the phenomenon was clarified by the simulation. It was further observed that when the condition of quasi-Fermi level is considered, the results of calculated probability were significantly different from that of the results that used only Fermi level of majority carriers. The simulations further aided the explanation of the defect behavior in DLTS measurements and the overlapping phenomenon of the capacitance spectrum of hole and electron traps.