Beam Injection Methods for Characterizing Thin-Film Solar Cells

摘要

II-VI and I-III-VI solar cells are promising for future thin film photovoltaics. In this paper; the roles of electron-beam-induced current (EBIC) and cathodoluminescence in evaluating the influence of interfaces on those solar cells are reviewed. CdTe and Cu (In, Ga)Se_2 (CIGS) are the absorbers of the cells investigated. For CdTe/CdS solar cells, a detailed study has been conducted of the effects of grain boundaries and the Te/CdTe or ZnTe:Cu/CdTe interfaces for back-contacting. For CIGS solar cells, we have investigated different buffer layer schemes, showing that these interfaces are critical in the definition of the mechanisms for carrier collection.