Leakage of photocurrent: an alternative view on I–V curves of solar cells**Project supported by the Union Innovation Projects of Jiangsu Province (No. BY2011182) and CAS, the National Basic Research Program (No. 2012CB619305), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51272275, 51302305, 61376065).

Abstract

An alternative way is proposed to interpret I–V characteristics of GaInP single-junction solar cells by position-dependent leakage of photocurrent. With this approach, the I–V curves of solar cells under non-uniform illumination are well analyzed. The effective spreading resistance is also extracted to understand the dynamic behavior of between the open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current points. The conditions under which the one-diode model will fail are addressed in detail. These analyses are also applicable for a characterization of the I–V curves with lateral voltage distribution under uniform illumination.