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Quantitative Carrier Density Wave Imaging in Silicon Solar Cells Using Photocarrier Radiometry and Lock-in Carrierography

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Abstract

InGaAs camera-based low-frequency homodyne and high-frequency heterodyne lock-in carrierographies (LIC) are introduced for spatially resolved imaging of optoelectronic properties of Si solar cells. Based on the full theory of solar cell photocarrier radiometry (PCR), several simplification steps were performed aiming at the open circuit case, and a concise expression of the base minority carrier density depth profile was obtained. The model shows that solar cell PCR/LIC signals are mainly sensitive to the base minority carrier lifetime. Both homodyne and heterodyne frequency response data at selected locations on a mc-Si solar cell were used to extract the local base minority carrier lifetimes by best fitting local experimental data to theory.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Canada Research Chairs Program and to NSERC for a Discovery grant to A. Mandelis who also gratefully acknowledges the Chinese Recruitment Program of Global Experts (Thousand Talents). QMS gratefully acknowledges the NNSFC (Grant No. 61574030) and the project sponsored by OATF, UESTC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Optoelectronic Information, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China

    Q. M. Sun & A. Mandelis

  2. Center for Advanced Diffusion-Wave Technologies (CADIFT), Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 3G8, Canada

    A. Melnikov & A. Mandelis

Authors
  1. Q. M. Sun
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  2. A. Melnikov
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  3. A. Mandelis
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Correspondence to A. Mandelis.

Additional information

This article is part of the selected papers presented at the 18th International Conference on Photoacoustic and Photothermal Phenomena.

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Sun, Q.M., Melnikov, A. & Mandelis, A. Quantitative Carrier Density Wave Imaging in Silicon Solar Cells Using Photocarrier Radiometry and Lock-in Carrierography. Int J Thermophys 37, 45 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-016-2054-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10765-016-2054-0

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