Minority carrier lifetime of a Solar Cell and its C - V characteristics

Aim of the Experiment

To measure the open circuit voltage decay of a crystalline silicon solar cell and calculate minority carrier
life time.
Part 1 : Relation between minority carrier lifetime and the open circuit voltage decay
Both these experiments use a PN junction. For simplicity, we consider a P
+
N junction. Considering a
n-doped semiconductor with a shallow donor concentration given by N
d
donors /cm
3
. We focus on the
N region. Electrons are the majority carriers and holes are the minority carriers in the N region. The
equilibrium minority carrier concentration is given by p
0
= (n
2
i
)/N
d
. Since we are dealing with a P
+
N
one sided junction, we will ignore the depletion region in the P
+
region. Fig. 1(a) shows only the N
region in the dark. The N region consists of a depletion region of width d
0
and a neutral region of width
W - d
0
where W is the thickness of the N region.
W
d
0
dL L
(a)
(b)
Figure 1: N region (a) in dark (b) under illumination
If light of energy > E
g
is incident on the semiconductor, light is absorbed and increases the carrier
concentration of both carriers - holes and electrons. We choose the intensity of the light such that the
hole concentration in the N region under illumination is given by p
L
so that N
d
p
L
p
0
.
Under illumination the N type region spontaneously breaks up into two parts - Fig. 1(b). Minority
carriers (holes) generated within a diusion length (L) of the depletion region (shown as dL in g 2) can
diuse to the junction and give rise to a current in the external circuit. (Current generation region in
addition to the current generation region of the depletion region). Carriers generated in the region W -
L - d
L
are lost by recombination (Recombination region).
Under illumination, the diode develops forward bias. At a given forward bias, carriers are lost due to
extraction and to recombination. We can assume that the depletion region (d
L
) is negligibly small at
V
OC
as the cell is under forward bias.
At V
OC
carriers can be lost only by recombination. Hence the decay of the open circuit voltage when
the light is turned o is a measure of the minority carrier lifetime . The minority carrier lifetime is
hence given by,
1
= (
kT
q
)/(
1
dV
OC
/dt
)
This can be easily seen from the expression for V
OC
in terms of the short circuit current I
SC
.
( try and see this for yourself Hint : V
OC
= (
kT
q
) ln(
I
SC
I
0
),
SC
is proportional to P
L
and the recombination
rate is proportional to (P
L
- p
0
)/)
Deviations from the simple theory above: Some possibilities
If the cell is internally shunted, then external open circuit condition is not true open circuit. ( How
will you check this ? )
If the lifetime depends on the injected carrier density, then it can change during the decay. ( How
will you check this ? )
Non uniform carrier generation - either due to the light source or non uniform material. ( How will
you check this ? )
Part 2 : Depth proling the semiconductor to get the depth distribution of the shallow
dopant using capacitance voltage proling
We consider a P
+
N one sided junction as before, for simplicity, . The depletion is primarily in the N
layer. The X axis is along the length of the N doped semiconductor.
In the depletion region, there are no free carriers (clearly this is not valid at the edge of the depletion
region - transition from depletion to neutral region).
There is a built in electric eld (in the depletion region). The dopant distribution determines the dc
electric eld through the solution of the Poisson equation. For instance if the dopant is uniformally
distributed, the dc electric eld is linear in space and the dc voltage consequently has a quadratic depen-
dence (see Fig 2).
A dierent dopant distribution will give rise to a dierent dc spatial electric eld and voltage depen-
dence. For simplicity, we assume that the dopant distribution varies only along one direction say X
and is constant in the YZ plane. We do not know the dopant distribution with depth in the N type
material. The aim of this experiment is to determine the dopant distribution along X. The idea is to use
capacitance-voltage relation and then convert this information to dopant density and depth relation.
It is easy to see why the voltage can be used to selectively probe any given X in the sample. When the
PN junction is reverse biased, the depletion region extends into the N region as the reverse bias voltage
is increased. So X can be controlled by a dc voltage.
How is Capacitance related to the dopant concentration ?
The capacitance C is the ac small signal capacitance and is given by C =
dQ
dV
It is the change in charge due to a change in voltage. (C is NOT Q/V). This is very important.
To begin with, let the dc bias across the diode be 0 V. The dc electric eld depends on the details
of the dopant distribution and distance relation. However, when a small ac eld is applied across the
sample, the depletion region does not contribute to dq as there is no mobile charge. The mobile charge
exists only at the edge of the depletion region. The response to the ac eld takes place only at the edge
of the depletion region - independent of the details of the dopant distribution in the depletion region. It
is a parallel plate capacitor. So the capacitance is simply given by
C =
A
0
x
d
(1)
2
Figure 2: PN junction. (Source: wikipedia)
where is the relative permittivity and
0
the permittivity of vacuum. A is the device area and x
d
the
depletion layer thickness.
If we assume that dV is small, then the donor concentration is approximately constant for the small
modulation of the depletion width.
dQ = q N
d
(x
d
) x
d
(2)
dV =
q N
d
x
d
x
d
x
d

0
(3)
C
V
= (
C
x
d
) (
x
d
V
) (4)
Using equations 1 4, we can write
N
d
(x
d
) = -C
3
(
1

0
A
2
) (
C
V
)
1
(5)
A measurement of C and C / V Vs V will determine the doping prole.
Eq. 5 can also be written as
( N
d
(x
d
) )
1
= -
1
2C
3
( q
0
A
2
) ( d ( 1 / C
2
) / dV )
3
If N
d
is constant,
1
C
2
=
2(V
bi
V )

0
A
2
N
d
A plot of
1
C
2
Vs. V is a straight line for a constant doping density. From the slope one can get the
doping density and the built in voltage from the intercept. Dopant proling using Capvoltage is a very
powerful technique.
Some sources of errors:
The diodes should not be leaky. This becomes an issue as the reverse bias increases. Measuring the dc
current under reverse bias provides an independent estimate of the leakage.
Another way to quantitatively check whether leakage is important is to look at the phase shift of the
current through the capacitor with respect to the applied ac voltage. (Think about this.)
4