Improved value for the silicon intrinsic carrier concentration from 275 to 375 K

Abstract

A recent review has suggested that the commonly cited value of 1.45×1010 cm−3 for the silicon intrinsic carrier concentration at 300 K is inconsistent with the best experimental data. An alternate value of 1.08×1010 cm−3 was proposed. From measurements of the current-voltage characteristics of p-n junction diodes, this paper reports a new and more accurate determination of this parameter over the 275–375 K temperature range which supports such lower values. The one-standard-deviation uncertainty in the measurement of the intrinsic carrier concentration is estimated to lie in the 3%–4% range, about three times smaller than previous measurements at these temperatures. Additionally, this technique provides information on the minority carrier electron diffusivity in silicon.

Models for numerical device simulations of crystalline silicon solar cells—a review

“…This choice caused a severe underestimation of V oc . With a rather unnoticed exception [79], it took until 1990 to adjust n i to lower values by means of experiments with highefficiency Si solar cells that had a highly optimized emitter [80,81]. The basic idea behind these experiments by Sproul and Green was as follows.…”

“…Various N dop levels (or, equivalently, base resistivities) resulted in various n i values depicted in Fig. 4(b), so the average was taken, which is n i = 1.00(3) × 10 10 cm −3 [81] (the digit in the parentheses represents the estimated onestandard-deviation uncertainty in the last digit of the previous value). However, this value was significantly higher than 9.7(1) × 10 9 cm −3 as determined with admittance measurements by Misiakos and Tsamakis [82] and is shown as square symbol in Fig.…”

Minority carrier lifetime of silicon solar cells from quasi-steady-state photoluminescence

“…U oc measurements were conducted at a temperature of T¼296.1 70.3 K. With the net dopant concentration N ¼ ð7:8 7 0:4Þ Â 10 16 cm À3 as derived from measurements of free carrier absorption via FTIR [18,19] on neighboring wafers of the same feedstock, the intrinsic carrier concentration in silicon n i ¼ ð8:5 70:5Þ Â 10 9 cm À3 [20][21][22][23] and the generation rate G ¼ ð9:77 0:5Þ Â 10 18 cm À3 s À1 , U oc was also calculated according to Eq. (5) on the basis of an averaged lifetime value over the active cell area (i.e.…”

Nanoimprint lithography for solar cell texturisation

“…This number, which corresponds to both the hole as well as electron concentration in undoped silicon is about 1•10 10 cm -3 [14].…”