Quantitative description of the properties of extended defects in silicon by means of electron- and laser-beam-induced currents

A solar cell on a wafer of multicrystalline silicon containing grain boundaries was studied by the induced-current method. The sample was scanned by an electron beam and by a laser beam at two wavelengths (980 and 635 nm). The recorded induced-current maps were aligned by means of a specially developed code, that enabled to analyze the same part of the grain boundary for three types of measurements. Optimization of the residual between simulated induced-current profiles and those obtained experimentally yielded quantitative estimates of the characteristics of a sample and its defects: the diffusion length of minority carriers and recombination velocity at the grain boundary.