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Abstract:
All solar cells show more or less inhomogeneous electronic properties. This holds in particular for multicrystalline silicon cells, where local differences of the lifetime of more than an order of magnitude exist. This contribution explains how these inhomogeneities can be imaged and quantified, and the physical origins and the efficiency degradation potential of J01-, J02-, and ohmic inhomogeneities are reviewed. It is found that J02 and ohmic currents are always highly localized, in contrast with J01 currents. Hence, for describing most of the area of silicon solar cells, a one-diode model is sufficient, but J02 and ohmic currents reduce the efficiency at low illumination intensity. Moreover, the physical origins of known prebreakdown phenomena are reviewed and a new breakdown type dominating in monocrystalline silicon cells is proposed.
