Grain boundaries in polycrystalline silicon are most likely to generate localized states in band gap. The localized states play a dominant role in determining the performance of solar cells by acting as traps or recombination center of carriers. In the present investigation, the scanning electron microscope - electron channeling pattern(SEM/ECP) method and SEM - electron back scattered diffraction pattern(SEM/EBSD) technique were applied to characterize the grain boundaries in p-type polycrystalline silicon with 99.999%(5N) in purity. Thereafter, temperature dependence of electrical activity of individual grain boundaries was measured by an electron beam induced current(EBIC) technique.

It has been found that temperature dependence of EBIC contrast at grain boundaries can change, depending on the misorientation angle the orientation of the boundary plane. The results can be explained by the difference in the position of the localized state within the band gap on the basis of the Shockley-Read-Hall statistics. The {111} ∑3 symmetrical tilt boundary has shallow states, while high ∑ boundaries have deep states. Low angle boundaries reveal high electrical activities. The EBIC contrast at low angle boundaries was found to increase with increasing misorientation angle up to 2° followed by an almost constant value. High electrical activity at low angle boundaries is probably attributed to a stress field of primary dislocations forming low angle boundaries.