Measuring the lifetime of silicon nanocrystal solar cell photo-carriers by using Kelvin probe force microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

摘要

We report the first measurements of photo-carrier lifetimes in silicon nanocrystal-based third generation solar cells by Kelvin force microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy under modulated frequency light illumination. A high concentration of active defects at the interface between the nanocrystals and silicon oxide matrix may be passivated by annealing under hydrogen. We found that the carrier lifetime, τ, is τ=7×10~(?5) s and τ = 3.5 × 10~(?5) s within 10% accuracy for the hydrogen passivated and non-passivated nanocrystals, respectively. We used an exponential model to confirm the experimental potential measurements and to estimate photocarrier lifetimes.