Light-induced effects in indium tin oxide/n-i-p hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells

Light-induced effects have been studied on hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells having an air mass 1 efficiency of 5%-7% and an area of 0.1-0.2 cm². Within 72 h of illumination the open-circuit voltage did not decrease while the fill factor decreased from 0.6 to 0.4 and the short-circuit current density decreased from 11.5 to 10.5 mA cm^-2. The increased shunt current is found to be critical to the device performance of degraded cells. The increased shunt current may be due to an increased surface recombination velocity. The series resistance was almost unchanged. Annealing in air at 150°C restored much of the efficiency loss previously caused by light-induced effects.