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Stress distribution in polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cells on glass measured by micro-Raman spectroscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

George Sarau ,
Michael Becker ,
Andreas Berger ,
Jens Schneider  and
Silke Christiansen
George Sarau
Affiliation:
gsarau@mpi-halle.de, Max-Planck-Institute of Microstructure Physics, Department 2, Weinberg 2, Halle, 06120, Germany, +49 3641 206440, +49 3641 206499
Michael Becker
Affiliation:
mbecker@mpi-halle.mpg.de, Max-Planck-Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, Halle, 06120, Germany
Andreas Berger
Affiliation:
berger@mpi-halle.de, Max-Planck-Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, Halle, 06120, Germany
Jens Schneider
Affiliation:
jenss@CSGSOLAR.COM, CSG Solar AG, Sonnenallee 1-5, Thalheim, 06766, Germany
Silke Christiansen
Affiliation:
sechrist@mpi-halle.de, Max-Planck-Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, Halle, 06120, Germany
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Abstract

Micro-Raman spectroscopy is used to measure stress distributions in 1.5 µm thick polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cells on glass. These measurements are combined with transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy to assign the measured local stresses to the sample's microstructure. Expansion and contraction of the silicon lattice in the layer and the borosilicate glass substrate during the thermal processing of the solar cell as well as quartz beads of µm size that reside on the glass substrate for light-trapping purposes induce internal stresses that locally vary with structural features. While the thermal processing induces an average tensile stress in the silicon layer originating from the thermal mismatch between glass and silicon, the latter results in lateral stress gradients up to 208 ± 12 MPa in the mapped area.

Keywords

photovoltaicthermal stressesRaman spectroscopy
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1024: Symposium A – Combinatorial Methods for High-Throughput Materials Science , 2007 , 1024-A07-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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