Tutorial EN05—Young Scientist Tutorial on Characterization and Modeling Techniques for Thin-Film Solar Cells

Instructors: Mirjana Dimitrievska, Empa—Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology; Steve Harvey, National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Adam Phillips, The University of Toledo; Tao Song, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

This tutorial is intended for young researchers (students and post-graduates within 3 years of degree completion) who are active in the field of thin-film solar cells and would like to learn more about some of the fundamental characterization and modeling methods that are being used in research and development of these materials and devices. All presentations will be given by experienced researchers who are active in the characterization of Si-, III-V-, chalcogenide-, kesterite-, perovskite-, or other novel material based solar cells. Although these materials will be discussed as example systems, the presentations will primarily focus on the characterization and modeling techniques and thus should be of interest to participants from other symposia as well.

Learning Objectives include:

• Understand primary PV metrics (Voc, Jsc, FF, Efficiency) for single junction and tandem devices and how they relate to macro level device properties and measurement conditions
• Understand PL, TRPL, and THz spectroscopy for analyzing band structure and carrier dynamics, and the advantages/disadvantages of these different techniques; Develop skills to interpret experimental data and correlate it with theoretical calculations
• Understand the differences between dynamic and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy along with fundamentals of quantifying elemental profiles derived from these measurements
• Ability to set-up and run simple 1D PV device models in SCAPS using batch processing and use the J-V, band diagram, and recombination current density outputs to explain the device performance
• Knowledge of additional resources (e.g., articles, books, and experts) related to characterization and modeling methods discussed