• Kühnapfel, S.; Gall, S.; Sonntag, P.; Schäfer, N.; Abou-Ras, D.: Direct correlation of microstructure and device performance of liquid phase crystallized Si thin film solar cells on glass. Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters 10 (2016), p. 657-661

10.1002/pssr.201600219

Abstract:
Si thin films on glass grown by liquid phase crystallization (LPC) exhibit large grains resembling those in multicrystal­ line Si wafers. The present work gives direct insight into how planar defects in LPC-Si thin films influence the device per­ formance of the corresponding solar cells by acquiring elec­ tron-backscatter diffraction maps and measuring solar cell pa­ rameters on the same identical positions. By this approach, it was possible to dernarrstrate how low scanning velocities of the laser line during the crystallization lead to lower densities of grain boundaries, to improved charge-carrier diffusion lengths, and hence to improved device performances.