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Luminescence in Photovoltaics

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Fluorescence in Industry

Part of the book series: Springer Series on Fluorescence ((SS FLUOR,volume 18))

Abstract

This chapter reviews the applications of luminescence-based techniques in the photovoltaic industry, with special focus on crystalline silicon-based devices – the dominant technology in the market.

Section 1 introduces the principles of the photovoltaic effect and describes the light capture and conversion in the device. A brief description of the state-of-the-art device manufacture is then given along with a description of how power conversion efficiency of photovoltaic devices is determined.

Section 2 describes the origin of luminescence in photovoltaic devices and also describes the luminescence-based characterization of photovoltaic cells and modules.

Section 3 describes in detail how luminescence (photo- and electroluminescence) measurements are applied in the complete value chain of the PV industry, from ingot, to wafer, to device, to module, to complete infield systems.

Section 4 briefly describes how luminescence is also relevant for emerging thin-film photovoltaic technologies.

Section 5 describes a recently developed technique, reverse bias electroluminescence, where the photovoltaic devices are inversely polarized. The emitted photons here are a result of charge carrier acceleration and consequent scattering and/or recombination in a high electric field.

Section 6 concludes this chapter with an outlook on how luminescence imaging is expected to develop in the near future, namely, how currently under development lab techniques will likely be transferred to the industrial environment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The quality requirements for the microelectronics industry are far more restrictive than the PV industry. In the past when the PV industry was of a far small scale, it survived on discarded microelectronic grade silicon.

  2. 2.

    Although the dopants (boron and phosphorous) usually used for silicon PV materials have segregation coefficients close to one, there is always a dopant variation along the ingot height.

  3. 3.

    Hotspots on modules are known cause of solar modules to eventually ignite causing severe damage to the module, system, and location where modules are installed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Hugo Silva at Enertis Madrid, Dr. Michael Reuter and Liviu Stoicescu at Solarzentrum Stuttgart GmbH, Dr. Francisco Martínez-Moreno at the Instituto de Energía Solar – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Dr. Simon Koch at the Photovoltaic Institute Berlin, and Dr. Gisele A. dos Reis Benatto at the Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark. This chapter is significantly richer because of their willingness to openly discuss their work and to permit the use of their data. We also wish to thank WIP Renewable Energies EU PVSEC for permitting the reproduction of copyrighted material.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto Dom Luiz – Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    José Almeida Silva, João Manuel Serra, António Manuel Vallêra & Killian Lobato

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  1. José Almeida Silva
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  2. João Manuel Serra
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  4. Killian Lobato
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Correspondence to José Almeida Silva .

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  1. CQFM-IN and iBB-Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

    Bruno Pedras

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Silva, J.A., Serra, J.M., Vallêra, A.M., Lobato, K. (2019). Luminescence in Photovoltaics. In: Pedras, B. (eds) Fluorescence in Industry. Springer Series on Fluorescence, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/4243_2018_7

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