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Applied Physics Letters / Volume 97 / Issue 9 / ELECTRONIC TRANSPORT AND SEMICONDUCTORS

Appl. Phys. Lett. 97, 092107 (2010); http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3479534 (3 pages)

Nanoscale measurements of local junction breakdown in epitaxial film silicon solar cells

M. J. Romero, K. Alberi, I. T. Martin, K. M. Jones, D. L. Young, Y. Yan, C. Teplin, M. M. Al-Jassim, P. Stradins, and H. M. Branz

National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), 1617 Cole Boulevard Golden, Colorado 80401-3393, USA

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(Received 14 June 2010; accepted 13 July 2010; published online 1 September 2010)

In this contribution, the authors report on near-field scanning optical microscopy measurements of the luminescence emitted from localized junction breakdown in epitaxial silicon solar cells. Our measurements suggest that the observed local reduction in breakdown voltage results from avalanche multiplication assisted by the reinforcing combination of (i) the local enhancement of the electrostatic field at the apex of inverted pyramid pits and (ii) the participation of defect states in the avalanche breakdown. Transmission electron microscopy reveals the microstructure of the defect responsible for the local junction breakdown.

© 2010 American Institute of Physics

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

avalanche breakdown, defect states, electroluminescence, elemental semiconductors, near-field scanning optical microscopy, semiconductor epitaxial layers, silicon, solar cells, transmission electron microscopy

PACS

ARTICLE DATA

Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3479534

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

0003-6951 (print)  
1077-3118 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef American Institute of Physics

For access to fully linked references, you need to log in.
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    I. T. Martin, C. W. Teplin, J. R. Doyle, H. M. Branz, and P. Stradins, J. Appl. Phys. 107, 054906 (2010)JAPIAU000107000005054906000001.

    C. W. Teplin, K. Alberi, M. Shub, C. Beall, I. Martin, M. J. Romero, D. L. Young, R. C. Reedy, P. Stradins, and H. M. Branz, Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 201901 (2010)APPLAB000096000020201901000001.

    K. Alberi, I. T. Martin, M. Shub, C. W. Teplin, M. J. Romero, R. C. Reedy, E. Iwaniczko, A. Duda, P. Stradins, H. M. Branz, and D. L. Young, Appl. Phys. Lett. 96, 073502 (2010)APPLAB000096000007073502000001.

    N. Akil, S. E. Kerns, D. V. Kerns, Jr., A. Hoffmann, and J. -P. Charles, Appl. Phys. Lett. 73, 871 (1998)APPLAB000073000007000871000001.


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