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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Direct nanoscale mapping of open circuit voltages at local back surface fields for PERC solar cells
AU - Longacre, Alexandra
AU - Martin, Michael
AU - Moran, Thomas
AU - Kolosov, Oleg
AU - Schneller, Eric
AU - Curran, Alan J.
AU - Wang, Menghong
AU - Dai, Jianfang
AU - Bruckman, Laura S.
AU - Jaubert, Jean-Nicolas
AU - Davis, Kristopher O.
AU - Braid, Jennifer L.
AU - French, Roger H.
AU - Huey, Bryan
N1 - The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-04736-x
PY - 2020/9/1
Y1 - 2020/9/1
N2 - The open circuit voltage (VOC) is a critical and common indicator of solar cell performance as well as degradation, for panel down to lab-scale photovoltaics. Detecting VOC at the nanoscale is much more challenging, however, due to experimental limitations on spatial resolution, voltage resolution, and/or measurement times. Accordingly, an approach based on Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy is implemented to directly detect the local VOC, notably for monocrystalline Passivated Emitter Rear Contact (PERC) cells which are the most common industrial-scale solar panel technology in production worldwide. This is demonstrated with cross-sectioned monocrystalline PERC cells around the entire circumference of a poly-aluminum-silicide via through the rear emitter. The VOC maps reveal a local back surface field extending * 2 lm into the underlying p-type Si absorber due to Al in-diffusion as designed. Such high spatial resolution methods for photovoltaic performance mapping are especially promising for directly visualizing the effects of processing parameters, as well as identifying signatures of degradation for silicon and other solar cell technologies.
AB - The open circuit voltage (VOC) is a critical and common indicator of solar cell performance as well as degradation, for panel down to lab-scale photovoltaics. Detecting VOC at the nanoscale is much more challenging, however, due to experimental limitations on spatial resolution, voltage resolution, and/or measurement times. Accordingly, an approach based on Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy is implemented to directly detect the local VOC, notably for monocrystalline Passivated Emitter Rear Contact (PERC) cells which are the most common industrial-scale solar panel technology in production worldwide. This is demonstrated with cross-sectioned monocrystalline PERC cells around the entire circumference of a poly-aluminum-silicide via through the rear emitter. The VOC maps reveal a local back surface field extending * 2 lm into the underlying p-type Si absorber due to Al in-diffusion as designed. Such high spatial resolution methods for photovoltaic performance mapping are especially promising for directly visualizing the effects of processing parameters, as well as identifying signatures of degradation for silicon and other solar cell technologies.
KW - BEXP
KW - cross sectional polishing
KW - beam exit cross-sectional polishing
KW - Scanning probe microscopy
KW - SSRM
KW - AFM
KW - solar cells
KW - 3D
KW - three dimensional
U2 - 10.1007/s10853-020-04736-x
DO - 10.1007/s10853-020-04736-x
M3 - Journal article
VL - 55
SP - 11501
EP - 11511
JO - Journal of Materials Science
JF - Journal of Materials Science
SN - 0022-2461
IS - 25
ER -