Perimeter Recombination Characterization by Luminescence Imaging

Perimeter recombination causes significant efficiency loss in solar cells. This paper presents a method to quantify perimeter recombination via luminescence imaging for silicon solar cells embedded within the wafer. The validity of the method is discussed and verified via 2-D semiconductor simulation. We demonstrate the method to be sufficiently sensitive in that it can quantify perimeter recombination even in a solar cell where no obvious deviation from ideality is observed in the current-voltage (J-V) curve.