Imaging crystal orientations in multicrystalline silicon wafers via photoluminescence

Estimation of solidification interface shapes in a boron–phosphorus compensated multicrystalline silicon ingot via photoluminescence imaging

This paper introduces a method for estimating the shape of the solidification front along the height of a directionally-solidified multicrystalline silicon ingot. The technique uses net dopant density images, obtained on wafers via photoluminescence imaging under surface limited conditions, after the impact of grain boundaries is eliminated through an image processing procedure. By modeling the...

Imaging interstitial iron concentrations in boron-doped crystalline silicon using photoluminescence

Imaging the band-to-band photoluminescence of silicon wafers is known to provide rapid and high-resolution images of the carrier lifetime. Here, we show that such photoluminescence images, taken before and after dissociation of iron-boron pairs, allow an accurate image of the interstitial iron concentration across a boron-doped p-type silicon wafer to be generated. Such iron images can be obtai...

Quantifying carrier recombination at grain boundaries in multicrystalline silicon wafers through photoluminescence imaging

Precipitation of interstitial iron in multicrystalline silicon

The internal gettering of iron in silicon via iron precipitation at low processing temperatures is known to improve solar cell efficiencies. Studies have found that the optimal temperature lies in the range of 500 o C-600 o C. In this paper, we present experimental results on quantitatively analysing the precipitation of interstitial Fe in multicrystalline silicon wafers during the 500 o C-600 ...

Studying precipitation and dissolution of iron in multicrystalline silicon wafers during annealing

In this paper we study the changes in iron concentrations and distributions in multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) wafers after annealing in the temperature range of 600-900 o C. The dissolved Fe distributions across mc-Si wafers are obtained by photoluminescence imaging taken before and after dissociation of FeB pairs. The results show that the precipitation of dissolved Fe, both near the grain b...