Effect of germanium fraction on the effective minority carrier lifetime in thin film amorphous-Si/crystalline-Si1xGex/crystalline-Si heterojunction solar cells

The effect of germanium fraction on the effective minority carrier lifetime (τeff ) for epitaxial Si1-xGex layers is extracted using measurements on amorphous(a) Si(n+)/crystalline(c)-Si1-xGex(p)/crystalline(c)-Si(p+) heterojunction solar cells with x = 0.25, 0.41 and 0.56. The τeff extracted for Si...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inAIP advances Vol. 3; no. 5; p. 052119
Main Authors Abdul Hadi, Sabina, Hashemi, Pouya, DiLello, Nicole, Polyzoeva, Evelina, Nayfeh, Ammar, Hoyt, Judy L.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published AIP Publishing LLC 01.05.2013
Subjects
Crystal structure
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:The effect of germanium fraction on the effective minority carrier lifetime (τeff ) for epitaxial Si1-xGex layers is extracted using measurements on amorphous(a) Si(n+)/crystalline(c)-Si1-xGex(p)/crystalline(c)-Si(p+) heterojunction solar cells with x = 0.25, 0.41 and 0.56. The τeff extracted for Si0.75Ge0.25 is ∼1 μs, decreasing to ∼ 40 ns for Si0.44Ge0.56. In addition, the band-gap voltage offset (Woc) increases from 0.5 eV for Si to 0.65 eV for 56% Ge indicating an increase in non-radiative recombination consistent with the reduction in effective lifetime.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:2158-3226
2158-3226
DOI:10.1063/1.4805078