Impact of oxygen bonding on the atomic structure and photoluminescence properties of Si-rich silicon nitride thin films J. Appl. Phys. 112, 073514 (2012) Electron spin resonance features of the Ge Pb1 dangling bond defect in condensation-grown (100)Si/SiO2/Si1−xGex/SiO2 heterostructures J. Appl. Phys. 112, 074501 (2012) Capacitance spectroscopy study of deep levels in Cl-implanted 4H-SiC J. Appl. Phys. 112, 063717 (2012) Investigation of defect levels in Cs2Hg6S7 single crystals by photoconductivity and photoluminescence spectroscopies J. Appl. Phys. 112, 063702 (2012) Flat bands near Fermi level of topological line defects on graphite A method to deduce energy distributions of defects in the band gap of a semiconductor by measuring the complex admittance of a junction is proposed. It consists of calculating the derivative of the junction capacitance with respect to the angular frequency of the ac signal corrected by a factor taking into account the band bending and the drop of the ac signal over the space charge region of the junction. Numerical modeling demonstrates that defect distributions in energy can be reconstructed by this method with high accuracy. Defect distributions of polycrystalline Cu͑In,Ga͒Se 2 thin films are determined by this method from temperature dependent admittance measurements on heterojunctions of Cu͑In,Ga͒Se 2 with ZnO that are used as efficient thin film solar cells.
We present a detailed study of admittance spectroscopy and deep level transient spectroscopy on CuInSe2/CdS/ZnO thin film solar cells. The admittance spectra reveal an emission from a distribution of hole traps centered at an activation energy of 280 meV and a shallower level with a sharp activation energy of ∼ 120 meV. After repetitive annealing of the device in air at 200 °C, the activation energy of the latter level increases continuously from 120 to 240 meV, while the 280 meV hole traps remain unaffected. Deep level transient spectroscopy with optical excitation reveals an emission of minority carriers with time constants comparable to those observed for the shallow level in admittance spectroscopy. The shift of the activation energy after annealing also occurs in deep level transient spectroscopy and ascertains that the emissions observed in both techniques have the same origin. The magnitude and continuous shift of the activation energy of the minority carrier emission indicates a distribution of levels in the vicinity of the CdS/CuInSe2 heterointerface. In the case of interface states, the activation energy deduced from admittance spectroscopy corresponds to the position of the electron quasi-Fermi level at the interface, pointing to an inversion of the carrier type at the absorber surface. Measurements with an applied dc bias indicate that the electron Fermi level is pinned at the interface.
Post-deposition air-annealing effects of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 based thin films and heterojunction solar cell devices are studied by photoelectron spectroscopy and admittance spectroscopy. Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy reveals type inversion at the surface of the as-prepared films, which is eliminated after exposure of several minutes to air due to the passivation of surface Se deficiencies. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy demonstrates that air annealing at 200 °C leads to a decreased Cu concentration at the film surface. Admittance spectroscopy of complete ZnO/CdS/Cu(In,Ga)Se2 heterojunction solar cells shows that the Cu(In,Ga)Se2 surface type inversion is restored by the chemical bath used for CdS deposition. Air annealing of the finished devices at 200 °C reduces the type inversion again due to defect passivation. Our results also show that oxygenation leads to a charge redistribution and to a significant compensation of the effective acceptor density in the bulk of the absorber. This is consistent with the release of Cu from the absorber surface and its redistribution in the bulk.
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