ROLE OF LIFETIME AND ENERGY-BANDGAP NARROWING IN DIFFUSED-JUNCTION SILICON SOLAR CELLS.

The effects of bandgap narrowing, surface recombination and lifetime on the performance of n** plus p-diffused-junction silicon solar cells are analyzed, and experimental results are given to show that the bulk recombination in the n** plus -diffused region plays an important role in limiting the open-circuit voltage of solar cells. The analysis also brings out the effects of bandgap-narrowing models and lifetime models on the estimated carrier-concentration distributions, short-circuit currents and open-circuit voltages of solar cells. The theoretical results are compared with the experimental data obtained on n** plus p solar cells having different n** plus -layer thicknesses and different surface concentrations, to demonstrate the tenability of the bandgap-narrowing and lifetime models used in the analysis.