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Carrier lifetimes in high-lifetime silicon wafers and solar cells measured by photoexcited muon spin spectroscopy
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Murphy, J. D., Grant, N. E., Pain, Sophie, Niewelt, T., Wratten, A., Khorani, E., Markevich, V. P., Peaker, A. R., Altermatt, P. P., Lord, J. S. and Yokoyama, K. (2022) Carrier lifetimes in high-lifetime silicon wafers and solar cells measured by photoexcited muon spin spectroscopy. Journal of Applied Physics, 132 (6). 065704. doi:10.1063/5.0099492 ISSN 0021-8979.
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Official URL: http://doi.org/10.1063/5.0099492
Abstract
Photoexcited muon spin spectroscopy (photo-μSR) is used to study excess charge carrier lifetimes in silicon. Experiments are performed on silicon wafers with very high bulk lifetimes with the surface passivation conditions intentionally modified to control the effective lifetime. When the effective lifetime is low (<500 μs), implanting the muons to different depths enables the reliable measurement of carrier lifetime as a function of distance from a surface. It is also demonstrated that the photo-μSR technique can measure effective carrier lifetimes in completed commercial gallium doped silicon passivated emitter and rear cell devices, with results validated with harmonically modulated photoluminescence imaging. It is discovered, however, that prolonged muon irradiation of samples with very long effective lifetimes (>10 ms) results in detectable degradation of the measured lifetime. Re-passivation of degraded samples with a temporary room temperature superacid-based passivation scheme demonstrates that degradation occurs in the silicon bulk. Deep-level transient spectroscopy measurements reveal the existence of several defect-related traps near the muon-exposed surface in concentrations of order 1010 cm−3 that are not present near the surface not exposed to muons. In contrast to the common perception of the μSR technique, our results demonstrate that muons are not inert probes and that beam-induced recombination activity modifies the bulk lifetime significantly in samples with high effective carrier lifetimes.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Subjects: | Q Science > QC Physics | ||||||||||||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Engineering > Engineering | ||||||||||||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Semiconductors, Muons, Silicon, Recombination lifetime | ||||||||||||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Applied Physics | ||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: | American Institute of Physics | ||||||||||||||||||
| ISSN: | 0021-8979 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Official Date: | 14 August 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 132 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Number: | 6 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Number of Pages: | 15 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Article Number: | 065704 | ||||||||||||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1063/5.0099492 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 15 August 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 15 August 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||
| RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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