Contactless mapping of saturation currents of solar cells by photoluminescence

Abstract

We report in this letter the contactless measurement of spatially resolved photocurrent-photovoltage relationship. The method is based on hyperspectral imaging, from which we record cartography of absolute photoluminescence spectra from solar cells. Using the generalized Planck's law, it is therefore possible to derive the quantitative value of the quasi-Fermi levels splitting, related to the voltage over the junction. It allows us to directly extract optoelectronics properties of the device with a solely optical method. As a proof of concept, we derive saturation currents of a GaAs solar cell and find a good agreement with the standard electrical measurements. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.