On the carrier collection efficiency of amorphous silicon hydride Schottky barrier solar cells: Effects of recombination

Abstract

Exact solutions for the photogenerated carrier densities and the carrier collection efficiency have been found for amorphous silicon hydride (a-SiHx ) Schottky barrier solar cells. The dependence of the collection efficiency η on the nature of the contacts, and on the four characteristic lengthscales (thickness of a-SiHx film, hole diffusion length, absorption length, and width of the depletion region) is determined. Strong dependence of η on the width of the depletion region at very short wavelengths and on the hole diffusion length at long wavelengths suggests that the theory presented here can be used for the determination of these parameters from the experimental measurements of η in solar cells with intimate metal/semiconductor contacts.