Spatially resolved measurements of charge carrier lifetimes in CdTe solar cells

The lifetime of the minority charge carriers in polycrystalline Cadmium Telluride (pc-CdTe) for solar cell applications is a crucial material parameter and has been determined by analysis of the decay curves of the luminescence signal. Both the lateral and the transversal distributions of the carrier lifetime on the surface and in the bulk of pc-CdTe material as well as the respective solar cell characteristics were measured as a function of the deposition technique, the activation treatment, and the incorporation of additional group-V elements. The results are compared to prior studies. It was found that an activation process passivates grain boundaries and increases the carrier lifetime, which is then higher at the pn-junction than at the surface. Furthermore, nitrogen and phosphorus doping of the CdTe absorber material influences the charge carrier lifetime. The results show that the spatial resolved measurement of the carrier lifetime in pc-CdTe gives an important insight to the charge carrier dynamics of the material. (C) 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4798472]