HIGH ACCELERATING VOLTAGE ELECTRON-BEAM-INDUCED CURRENT (EBIC) OF THICK AND THIN SOLAR SILICON SPECIMENS

High and low accelerating voltage electron beam induced current, HAV- and LAV-EBIC, microscopy was used to investigate both thick and thin s ilicon solar cell specimens to determine a correlation between EBIC an d solar cell performance. In thick specimens, we observed that, unlike LAV-EBIC (5-50 keV), HAV-EBIC (200 keV) correlates well with measured solar cell properties because HAV-EBIC, like light, probes a silicon sample to a depth of hundreds of microns. Thinned specimens were inves tigated in a specially built transmission electron microscope (TEM) st age that permitted correlation between TEM defect microstructure and H AV-EBIC electrical activity. In these thin specimens, the calculated s preading of the 200 keV electron beam is approximately 0.1 mum. The ex perimental resolution, though, is an order of magnitude larger, becaus e the low collection efficiency forces operation at very high incident beam currents, with a concurrent increase in spot size.