Improvements in numerical modelling of highly injected crystalline siliconsolar cells

We numerically model crystalline silicon concentrator cells with the inclus ion of band gap narrowing (BGN) caused by injected free carriers. In previo us studies, the revised room-temperature value of the intrinsic carrier den sity, n(i) = 1.00 x 10(10) cm(-3), was inconsistent with the other material parameters of highly injected silicon. In this paper, we show that high-in jection experiments can be dt scribed consistently with the revised value o f ni if free-carrier induced BGN is included, and that such BGN is an impor tant effect in silicon concentrator cells. The new model presented here sig nificantly improves the ability to model highly injected silicon cells with a high level of precision. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reser ved.