Defect distributions in thin film solar cells deduced from admittance measurements under different bias voltages

Abstract

The voltage dependence of the derivative of the capacitance to (the logarithm of) the measurement frequency is investigated. Relations describing this dependence are derived for the influence of carrier freeze out, of a defect distribution, and of a back contact barrier. The validity of these relations is investigated with numerical simulations.Considering the extraction of the defect density from capacitance-frequency measurements, the extension of existing formulas to different bias voltages leads to an improved accuracy and the possibility to investigate spatial non-uniformities while preserving a direct link between the defect level energy and the apparent defect density. This is illustrated with voltage dependent admittance measurements of thin film Cu(In,Ga)Se2-based solar cell devices. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.