Root-cause analysis and characterization of oxygen-related defects in silicon PV material : an approach from macro to nanoscale
Name
1121202942-MIT.pdf
Size
21.33 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6806921dca97672ea8fb0df51ac9d16e
Author(s)
Youssef, Amanda.
Advisor(s)
Tonio Buonassisi.
Date Issued
2018
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
With energy demand forecasted to grow significantly, efforts towards mitigating global warming effects by reducing greenhouse gas emissions are becoming stricter as more power generation plants are deployed to meet the global demand. Deployment of renewable energy technologies as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuel is an attractive solution. Photovoltaics (PV) present several advantages over other energy sources because PV is modular, and has proven to be a scalable and reliable technology. A capital expenditure reduction of 70% has been found to be necessary to meet the climate targets of 7-10 TW of PV by 2030. This can be achieved through different channels: improving conversion efficiency and device performance of silicon modules, increasing solar cell manufacturing yield, reducing silicon feedstock material use, etc. This research focuses on n-type monocrystalline silicon and aims to increase conversion efficiency up to 20% relative and increase manufacturing yield up to 50%, as levers to reduce the capital expenditure. The increase in conversion efficiency and manufacturing yield is achieved by defect engineering and mitigation of a lifetime-limiting bulk defect in n-type monocrystalline silicon, characterized by low-lifetime concentric rings. Temperature- and injection-dependent photoluminescence imaging is applied to investigate the defect's root-cause by studying its evolution under several high temperature process conditions and is found to be caused by oxide-related precipitates. Synchrotron-based mic ...
Description
Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 2018
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-155).
Subjects
Mechanical Engineering.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
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