Grain boundaries and surfaces in polycrystalline photovoltaics

Despite the fact that polycrystalline photovoltaics materials such as CdTe and CIGS are an established commercial technology, the precise role of grain boundaries in their performance remains poorly understood. The high defect density at grain boundaries is generally detrimental to carrier lifetime, however the electric fields surrounding charged grain boundaries may separate electrons and holes, effectively passivating the grain boundary. One difficulty in ascertaining the properties of grain boundaries is that high spatial resolution experimental techniques needed to probe individual grain boundaries are generally surface sensitive. For this reason, extracting quantitative grain boundary and other material properties from this data requires a quantitatively accurate model of the exposed surface. Motivated by these considerations, we present a theoretical analysis of the response of a polycrystalline semiconductor to a localized excitation near a grain boundary, and near the surface. We use our analytical results to interpret electron beam induced current (EBIC) data on polycrystalline CdTe solar cells.