Rapid Characterization of Photovoltaic Materials Using Photoelectrochemical Techniques

The development of a new materials technology for photovoltaic devices is often hindered by the lack of a rapid quantitative technique for measuring the photovoltaic quality of the new material as a function of growth parameters, doping levels and device processing procedures. Photoelectrochemical methods are shown to provide rapid quantitative characterization without the limitations of photoluminescence and other techniques. The short-circuit photoelectrochemical current is shown to be proportional to the short-circuit current of a solid-state photovoltaic device made from the same material. Electrolyte-semiconductor junctions are also used to measure the bandgap, carrier concentration and diffusion length.