Data for Temperature-dependent carrier lifetime in silicon heterojunction solar cells measured using photoexcited muon spin spectroscopy

In this work, temperature-dependent lifetime is measured in the 77–290 K temperature range in a completed silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cell by photoexcited muon spin spectroscopy (photo-µSR). Measurements are also made in a SHJ cell stripped back to the base substrate and a reference silicon substrate, both of which were passivated with aluminium oxide.

By validation of results with conventional techniques including photoconductance decay (PCD), photoluminescence (PL) imaging, harmonically modulated PL and Suns-Voc, it shown that photo-µSR can be used to study carrier dynamics in substrates and fully processed devices. At room temperature, the completed SHJ cell exhibited shorter effective lifetimes compared to its stripped and re-passivated substrate counterpart, indicative of higher recombination associated with the metallised and interface layers.