Open AccessCharacterization of Photoinduced Current in Poly-Si Solar Cell by Employing Photoconductive Atomic Force Microscopy (PC-AFM)
Author(s) -
Jinhee Heo
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
transactions on electrical and electronic materials/transactions on electrical and electronic materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.201
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 2092-7592
pISSN - 1229-7607
DOI - 10.4313/teem.2012.13.1.35
Subject(s) - materials science , photoconductivity , solar cell , optoelectronics , conductive atomic force microscopy , kelvin probe force microscope , photovoltaic effect , photoconductive atomic force microscopy , schottky barrier , halogen lamp , contact resistance , irradiation , electrode , nanotechnology , atomic force microscopy , photovoltaic system , scanning electron microscope , optics , scanning capacitance microscopy , composite material , chemistry , diode , ecology , physics , layer (electronics) , scanning confocal electron microscopy , biology , nuclear physics
In this study, we have attempted to characterize the photovoltaic effect in real-time measurement of photoinducedcurrent in a poly-Si-based solar cell using photoconductive atomic force microscopy (PC-AFM). However, the highcontact resistance that originates from the metal-semiconductor Schottky contact disturbs the current flow andmakes it difficult to measure the photoinduced current. To solve this problem, a thin metallic film has been coatedon the surface of the device, which successfully decreases the contact resistance. In the PC-AFM analysis, we useda metal-coated conducting cantilever tip as the top electrode of the solar cell and light from a halogen lamp wasirradiated on the PC-AFM scanning region. As the light intensity becomes stronger, the current value increases upto 200 μA at 80 W, as more electrons and hole carriers are generated because of the photovoltaic effect. The ratio ofthe conducting area at different conditions was calculated, and it showed a behavior similar to that generated by aphotoinduced current. On analyzing the PC-AFM measurement results, we have verified the correlation between thelight intensity and photoinduced current of the poly-Si-based solar cell in nanometer scale