Lifetime Spectroscopy: A Method of Defect Characterization in Silicon for Photovoltaic Applications (Springer Series in Materials Science Book 85)

"Lifetime spectroscopy is one of the most sensitive diagnostic tools for the identification and analysis of impurities in semiconductors. Since it is based on the recombination process, it provides insight into precisely those defects that are relevant to semiconductor devices such as solar cells. This book introduces a transparent modeling procedure that allows a detailed theoretical evaluation of the spectroscopic potential of the different lifetime spectroscopic techniques. The various theoretical predictions are verified experimentally with the context of a comprehensive study on different metal impurities. The quality and consistency of the spectroscopic results, as explained here, confirms the excellent performance of lifetime spectroscopy."--Résumé de l'éditeur Annotation Lifetime spectroscopy is one of the most sensitive diagnostic tools for the identification and analysis of impurities in semiconductors. Since it is based on the recombination process, it provides insight into precisely those defects that are relevant to semiconductor devices such as solar cells. This book introduces a transparent modeling procedure that allows a detailed theoretical evaluation of the spectroscopic potential of the different lifetime spectroscopic techniques. The various theoretical predictions are verified experimentally with the context of a comprehensive study on different metal impurities. The quality and consistency of the spectroscopic results, as explained here, confirms the excellent performance of lifetime spectroscopy Introduction....Pages 1-4 Theory of carrier lifetime in silicon....Pages 5-58 Lifetime measurement techniques....Pages 59-68 Theory of lifetime spectroscopy....Pages 69-255 Defect characterization on intentionally metal-contaminated silicon samples....Pages 257-395 The metastable defect in boron-doped Czochralski silicon....Pages 397-460 Summary and further work....Pages 461-470 Zusammenfassung und Ausblick....Pages 471-482 At present, 90% of the solar cells fabricated worldwide are made of crystalline silicon.