De. Carlson et K. Rajan, HYDROGEN-ION MOTION IN AMORPHOUS-SILICON SOLAR-CELLS AT ELEVATED-TEMPERATURES, Applied physics letters, 69(10), 1996, pp. 1447-1449
Electric held-enhanced degradation has been observed in amorphous sili
con solar cells exposed to intense illumination (45-60 suns) at elevat
ed temperatures (>160 degrees C). The front tin oxide contacts of both
p-i-n and n-i-p cells darken significantly when a strong reverse bias
is applied at elevated temperatures and under intense illumination. C
ompositional profiles of the cells show that a strong reverse bias cau
ses a depletion of hydrogen near the contacts. These results are inter
preted in terms of proton motion near the p/i interface of p-i-n cells
and negative hydrogen ion motion near the i/n interface. (C) 1996 Ame
rican Institute of Physics.