Increasing the efficiency of silicon heterojunction solar cells and modules by light soaking

Eiji Kobayashi; Stefaan De Wolf; Jacques Levrat; Antoine Descoeudres; Matthieu Despeisse; Franz-Josef Haug; Christophe Ballif

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.023

Increasing the efficiency of silicon heterojunction solar cells and modules by light soaking

Eiji Kobayashi, Stefaan De Wolf, Jacques Levrat, Antoine Descoeudres, Matthieu Despeisse, Franz-Josef Haug, Christophe Ballif

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

Silicon heterojunction solar cells use crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers as optical absorbers and employ bilayers of doped/intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) to form passivating contacts. Recently, we demonstrated that such solar cells increase their operating voltages and thus their conversion efficiencies during light exposure. We found that this performance increase is due to improved passivation of the a-Si:H/c-Si interface and is induced by injected charge carriers (either by light soaking or forward-voltage biasing of the device). Here, we discuss this counterintuitive behavior and establish that: (i) the performance increase is observed in solar cells as well as modules; (ii) this phenomenon requires the presence of doped a-Si:H films, but is independent from whether light is incident from the a-Si:H(p) or the a-Si:H(n) side; (iii) UV and blue photons do not play a role in this effect; (iv) the performance increase can be observed under illumination intensities as low as 20Wm (0.02-sun) and appears to be almost identical in strength when under 1-sun (1000Wm); (v) the underlying physical mechanism likely differs from annealing-induced surface passivation.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	43-49
Number of pages	7
Journal	Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells
Volume	173
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.023
State	Published - Jun 24 2017

Bibliographical note

KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Yoshimi Watabe and Fumiharu Ishimura for the sample preparation of single cell modules. The authors are also grateful to Mathieu Boccard, Gabriel Christmann, Sylvain Nicolay, Philipp Löper, Jan Haschke, Raphaël Monnard, Jean Cattin, Andrea Tomasi, Gizem Nogay, Andrea Ingenito, Philipp Wyss, Josua Stuckelberger, Silvia Martin de Nicolas, Jonathan Champliaud, and Christophe Allebé for fruitful discussions. The simulations were done with the software package ASA of Delft University of Technology. Financial support from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, EU FP7 program (CHETAAH Project, Contract No. 609788), and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is acknowledged.

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10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.023

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title = "Increasing the efficiency of silicon heterojunction solar cells and modules by light soaking",

abstract = "Silicon heterojunction solar cells use crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers as optical absorbers and employ bilayers of doped/intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) to form passivating contacts. Recently, we demonstrated that such solar cells increase their operating voltages and thus their conversion efficiencies during light exposure. We found that this performance increase is due to improved passivation of the a-Si:H/c-Si interface and is induced by injected charge carriers (either by light soaking or forward-voltage biasing of the device). Here, we discuss this counterintuitive behavior and establish that: (i) the performance increase is observed in solar cells as well as modules; (ii) this phenomenon requires the presence of doped a-Si:H films, but is independent from whether light is incident from the a-Si:H(p) or the a-Si:H(n) side; (iii) UV and blue photons do not play a role in this effect; (iv) the performance increase can be observed under illumination intensities as low as 20Wm (0.02-sun) and appears to be almost identical in strength when under 1-sun (1000Wm); (v) the underlying physical mechanism likely differs from annealing-induced surface passivation.",

author = "Eiji Kobayashi and {De Wolf}, Stefaan and Jacques Levrat and Antoine Descoeudres and Matthieu Despeisse and Franz-Josef Haug and Christophe Ballif",

note = "KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Yoshimi Watabe and Fumiharu Ishimura for the sample preparation of single cell modules. The authors are also grateful to Mathieu Boccard, Gabriel Christmann, Sylvain Nicolay, Philipp L{\"o}per, Jan Haschke, Rapha{\"e}l Monnard, Jean Cattin, Andrea Tomasi, Gizem Nogay, Andrea Ingenito, Philipp Wyss, Josua Stuckelberger, Silvia Martin de Nicolas, Jonathan Champliaud, and Christophe Alleb{\'e} for fruitful discussions. The simulations were done with the software package ASA of Delft University of Technology. Financial support from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, EU FP7 program (CHETAAH Project, Contract No. 609788), and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is acknowledged.",

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doi = "10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.023",

language = "English (US)",

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pages = "43--49",

journal = "Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells",

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T1 - Increasing the efficiency of silicon heterojunction solar cells and modules by light soaking

AU - Kobayashi, Eiji

AU - De Wolf, Stefaan

AU - Levrat, Jacques

AU - Descoeudres, Antoine

AU - Despeisse, Matthieu

AU - Haug, Franz-Josef

AU - Ballif, Christophe

N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01 Acknowledgements: The authors are grateful to Yoshimi Watabe and Fumiharu Ishimura for the sample preparation of single cell modules. The authors are also grateful to Mathieu Boccard, Gabriel Christmann, Sylvain Nicolay, Philipp Löper, Jan Haschke, Raphaël Monnard, Jean Cattin, Andrea Tomasi, Gizem Nogay, Andrea Ingenito, Philipp Wyss, Josua Stuckelberger, Silvia Martin de Nicolas, Jonathan Champliaud, and Christophe Allebé for fruitful discussions. The simulations were done with the software package ASA of Delft University of Technology. Financial support from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, EU FP7 program (CHETAAH Project, Contract No. 609788), and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) is acknowledged.

PY - 2017/6/24

Y1 - 2017/6/24

N2 - Silicon heterojunction solar cells use crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers as optical absorbers and employ bilayers of doped/intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) to form passivating contacts. Recently, we demonstrated that such solar cells increase their operating voltages and thus their conversion efficiencies during light exposure. We found that this performance increase is due to improved passivation of the a-Si:H/c-Si interface and is induced by injected charge carriers (either by light soaking or forward-voltage biasing of the device). Here, we discuss this counterintuitive behavior and establish that: (i) the performance increase is observed in solar cells as well as modules; (ii) this phenomenon requires the presence of doped a-Si:H films, but is independent from whether light is incident from the a-Si:H(p) or the a-Si:H(n) side; (iii) UV and blue photons do not play a role in this effect; (iv) the performance increase can be observed under illumination intensities as low as 20Wm (0.02-sun) and appears to be almost identical in strength when under 1-sun (1000Wm); (v) the underlying physical mechanism likely differs from annealing-induced surface passivation.

AB - Silicon heterojunction solar cells use crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafers as optical absorbers and employ bilayers of doped/intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) to form passivating contacts. Recently, we demonstrated that such solar cells increase their operating voltages and thus their conversion efficiencies during light exposure. We found that this performance increase is due to improved passivation of the a-Si:H/c-Si interface and is induced by injected charge carriers (either by light soaking or forward-voltage biasing of the device). Here, we discuss this counterintuitive behavior and establish that: (i) the performance increase is observed in solar cells as well as modules; (ii) this phenomenon requires the presence of doped a-Si:H films, but is independent from whether light is incident from the a-Si:H(p) or the a-Si:H(n) side; (iii) UV and blue photons do not play a role in this effect; (iv) the performance increase can be observed under illumination intensities as low as 20Wm (0.02-sun) and appears to be almost identical in strength when under 1-sun (1000Wm); (v) the underlying physical mechanism likely differs from annealing-induced surface passivation.

UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/625637

UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927024817303318

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021230465&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.023

DO - 10.1016/j.solmat.2017.06.023

M3 - Article

SN - 0927-0248

VL - 173

SP - 43

EP - 49

JO - Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

JF - Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

ER -

Increasing the efficiency of silicon heterojunction solar cells and modules by light soaking

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