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Universality of non-Ohmic shunt leakage in thin-film solar cells.
- Source :
- Journal of Applied Physics; Dec2010, Vol. 108 Issue 12, p124509, 10p, 5 Diagrams, 4 Graphs
- Publication Year :
- 2010
-
Abstract
- We compare the dark current-voltage (IV) characteristics of three different thin-film solar cell types: hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) p-i-n cells, organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) cells, and Cu(In,Ga)Se<subscript>2</subscript> (CIGS) cells. All three device types exhibit a significant shunt leakage current at low forward bias (V<∼0.4) and reverse bias, which cannot be explained by the classical solar cell diode model. This parasitic shunt current exhibits non-Ohmic behavior, as opposed to the traditional constant shunt resistance model for photovoltaics. We show here that this shunt leakage (I<subscript>sh</subscript>), across all three solar cell types considered, is characterized by the following common phenomenological features: (a) voltage symmetry about V=0, (b) nonlinear (power law) voltage dependence, and (c) extremely weak temperature dependence. Based on this analysis, we provide a simple method of subtracting this shunt current component from the measured data and discuss its implications on dark IV parameter extraction. We propose a space charge limited (SCL) current model for capturing all these features of the shunt leakage in a consistent framework and discuss possible physical origin of the parasitic paths responsible for this shunt current mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00218979
- Volume :
- 108
- Issue :
- 12
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 56909724
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3518509