A contactless method for measuring the recombination velocity of an individual grain boundary in thin-film photovoltaics

A cathodoluminescence-based, contactless method for extracting the bulk minority carrier diffusion length and reduced recombination velocity of an individual grain boundary is applied to vapor grown CdTe epitaxial films. The measured diffusion length was within the range of 0.4-0.6 mu m and the grain boundary recombination velocity varied from 500 to 750 cm/s. The technique can be used to investigate the effect of grain boundaries on photovoltaic performance. 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3486482]