Peculiarities of the Current Characteristics of a Solar Cell Based on Polycrystalline Silicon at Different Powers of Illumination by Sunlight
Abstract
The paper studies dark and light current–voltage characteristics of a polycrystalline solar cell with the Ag-n-Si/p-Si–Al/Ag structure, in a wide range of external applied electrical voltage and solar radiation power generating electron-hole pairs in the photoactive part of solar radiation. It has been established that the effect of amplification of the primary photocurrent is observed due to the presence of a “high-resistance region” at the boundary between crystallites, in the region of the space charge (p–n junction) and the base region of the p-Si layer, in the mode of charge carrier injection. The observed effect is explained by the positive feedback mechanism as a result of modulation of the resistance of the “high-resistance region” located at the boundary between the crystallites and the resistance of the base layer by injected and photogenerated charge carriers. The high-resistance regions found at the interface between the crystallites limit the power output of the solar cell.