Accelerated degradation in amorphous silicon solar cells by a combination of current injection and light insolation

A new degradation technique for amorphous silicon solar cells comprising of a combination of current injection and insolation has been developed. Comp ared to the conventional light degradation technique, current-induced degra dation which involves forward biased current stress, results in a lower sta bilized cell parameters including efficiency. This stabilized efficiency is , however, independent of the amount of current injected. The excess degrad ation is recovered under light illumination. The stabilized value of the co nversion efficiency is within experimental error identical to that observed in long term, illumination only degradation. The method is fast, accurate and reliable. Its reliability has also been tested for single junction sola r cells having intrinsic layers of different band gaps, as well. (C) 1998 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.