Light-induced degradation in different p-i-n and n-i Schottky barrier solar cell structures

The issue of the lack of reliable correlation between the characteristics of high performance solar cells and their intrinsic material properties is addressed in this paper. A systematic approach to the question of separating the effects of the bulk from those of the interface is described which is based on the self-consistent analysis on a variety of both materials and solar cell properties in the annealed and degraded state. The results presented are on characteristics which include not only light I-V but also dark I-V and quantum efficiency of p-i-n solar cells with different thicknesses as well as on n-i-metal Schottky barrier cell structures. These results are discussed in terms of how the contributions of the bulk i-layers can be established and quantified in the annealed as well as the degraded states. An example is presented for such a quantitative correlation for a Schottky barrier cell structure in the annealed and degraded states.