Spatial uniformity of minority-carrier lifetime in polycrystalline CdTe solar cells

Abstract
Time-resolved photoluminescence was used to map recombination lifetimes in polycrystalline CdS/CdTe solar cells. Typical lifetime profiles indicated spatial variation by factors of 2–3 across 1 cm dimensions. Correlated device efficiency measurements indicated that spatial regions of lifetime minima dominated the open-circuit voltage.