Light-induced Degradation of Thin-film Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cells

This paper evaluates the stability of a pin and a nip dilution series of microcrystalline silicon solar cells when exposed to white light (AM 1.5-like spectrum). Variation of electrical parameters and defect-related absorption is investigated as a function of light soaking and annealing steps. Cells of medium crystallinity show less than 10% reversible relative efficiency loss after 1000 hours of light-soaking, and their defect-related absorption is minimum in the initial but also degraded state. Pin and nip series present a similar trend for the light-induced losses of fill factor and open-circuit voltage (a few percents), whereas losses in short-circuit current density are more pronounced for the pin devices studied here.