Identification of electrically active defects in solar energy materials
Promotor : Henk Vrielinck
Type project : BOF-UGent 4 year research project
Duration : 10/2011 – 10/2015
Identification of electrically active defects in solar energy materials
Solar cells with a Cu(In/Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layer are presently intensively studied because of their high efficiency at low fabrication cost. Although defects in the absorber layer are generally considered as detrimental for the efficiency due to their impact on free carrier lifetime, little is known about their structure and its link with their electrical activity. The project will, on the one hand, focus on defect characterization of actual solar cell structures. On the other hand, large single crystals of CIGS and related materials will be investigated with various spectroscopic techniques (UV-Vis and IR absorption and luminescence spectroscopy, electron magnetic resonance, deep-level transient spectroscopy) to obtain a deeper insight in the structure of the dominant electrically active defects in them.