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In the search for new materials for solar cells, a fast feedback is needed. Radiative efficiency measurements based on photoluminescence (PL) are the tool of choice to screen the voltage a material is capable of. Additionally the dependence of the radiative efficiency on excitation density contains information on the diode ideality factor, which determines in turn the fill factor of the solar cell. Both parameters are immediate ingredients of the efficiency of a solar cell and can be determined from PL measurements, which allow fast feedback. The method to determine the optical diode ideality factor from PL measurements and compare to electrical measurements in finished solar cells are discussed.

The quasi Fermi level splitting is measured for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 absorber layers with different copper to (indium + gallium) ratios and for different gallium contents in the range of 20%-40%. For absorbers with a [Cu]/[In + Ga] ratio below one, the measured quasi Fermi level splitting is 120 meV higher compared to absorbers grown under copper excess independent of the gallium content, contrary to the ternary CuInSe2 where the splitting is slightly higher for absorber layers grown under copper excess. Possible explanations are the gallium gradient determined by the secondary ion mass spectrometry measurement which is less pronounced towards the surface for stoichiometric absorber layers or a fundamentally different recombination mechanism in the presence of gallium. Comparing the quasi Fermi level splitting of an absorber to the open circuit voltage of the corresponding solar cell, the difference for copper poor cells is much lower (60 meV) than that for copper rich cells (140 meV). The higher loss in V OC in the case of the Cu-rich material is attributed to tunneling enhanced recombination due to higher band bending within the space charge region.