STABILITY OF AMORPHOUS-SILICON MATERIALS INCORPORATED IN SOLAR-CELLS AND INTRINSIC LAYER PROFILING FOR ENHANCED STABILIZED PERFORMANCE

This paper shows that the study of bulk intrinsic materials in itself can not be used as a guideline for stability enhancement that is obtai nable in p(+)-i-n(+) solar cells. Good stability observed in a single layer by typical characterization methods does not simply lead to more stable solar cells upon implementation of this layer in the p(+)-i-n( +) structure. We attribute this lack of correlation to the significant and fundamental difference in the position of the Fermi level in a si ngle layer during Staebler-Wronski re-equilibration compared to the si tuation occurring in devices. We propose and demonstrate a latent defe ct engineering approach leading to enhanced stabilized efficiency in a morphous silicon solar cells.