Diode Factor in Solar Cells with Metastable Defects and Back Contact Recombination

To achieve a high fill factor, a small diode factor close to 1 is essential. The optical diode factor determined by photoluminescence is the diode factor from the neutral zone of the solar cell and thus a lower bound for the diode factor. Due to metastable defects transitions, the optical diode factor is higher than 1 even at low excitation. Here, the influence of the backside recombination and the doping level on the optical diode factor are studied. First, photoluminescence and solar cell capacitance simulator (SCAPS) simulations are used to determine the back surface recombination velocity of Cu(In, Ga)Se-2 with various back contacts and different doping levels. Then, experimental results and simulations show that both back surface recombination and high doping density reduce the optical diode factor. The back surface recombination reduces the optical diode factor with undesirable extra nonradiative recombination. The smaller value achieved by higher doping can increase quasi-Fermi level splitting at the same time. The simulations show that the back surface recombination reduces the optical diode factor due to an illumination-dependent recombination rate. In addition, a higher majority carrier doping reduces the influence of majority carrier gain from metastable defect transitions, thus reducing the optical diode factor.

Automated summary

This study investigates the influence of backside recombination and doping level on the optical diode factor. Both experimental results and simulations indicate that both back surface recombination and high doping density can reduce the optical diode factor.