Laboratory exercises on Information Technology Physics

Analysing sollar cell short circuit current as function of incident solar irradiance

Tonko Garma
Chair for electrical measurements and Chair for physics Technical University of Split

Instead of introduction
ber Halbleiter sollte man nicht arbeiten, das ist eine Schweinerei; wer wei, ob es berhaupt Halbleiter gibt. Wolfgang Pauli, 1931 Nitko se ne bi trebao baviti poluvodiima, to je obina pizdarija, ne znamo postoje li uope. Wolfgang Pauli, 1931

p-n photovoltaic effect

If ordinary p-n junction is short circuited in absence of light, no steday current will flow in external circuit inspite of p-n potential (first low of thermodynamics)

If light is allowed to fall on pn junction, measurable voltages and currents may be observed

Optical generation

Absorption coefficient

Short circuited and open circuited p-n junction

1) open circuit: falling light creates excess electron-hole pairs electrons created in the p-region diffuse to the junction and descend potential barries to n-side (simillar reasoning may be applied for hoels) These charge densities lower potential barrier for V0

Phenomenon is called p-n photovoltaic effect and output voltage photovoltage

If external circuit connecting p and n regions is closed, electrical current will flow as long as there is diffusion current of optically created excess electrons the n-region and current of optically created hoes from p-region to maintain barrier at height other than 0

2) Short circuit:

I-V characteristics of the illuminated p-n junction (1)

I-V characteristics of the illuminated p-n junction (2)

after tedious but straightforward calculation , we obtain:

which can be reorganised as follows:

I-V characteristics of the illuminated p-n junction (3)

J0 stands for saturation current (dark current) and it should be kep as low as possible It is function of material and dimensional parameters of the device, independent of the illumination level JL is generation current, independent on the junction voltage V but directly proportional to illumination intensity. This comes from the fact that generation G = Ne-x, and N is proportional to illumination If the circuit resistance is infinite (open circuit), J vanishes and the opencircuit voltage Voc is given by:

Voc is maximum obtainable volatge for given irradiance. Assuming JL>> J0, Voc increases exponentially with IL and thus irradiance (illumination). Note: Maximum Voc is of order of !!

I-V characteristics of the illuminated p-n junction (4)

If the circuit resistance (including internal device resistance) is zero, generated photovoltage V0 = 0 and maximal current, so called short circuit current flows:
Jsc = -JL

In case of both Voc and Jsc, delivered power is 0.

Sollar cell efficiency (1)

Sollar cell efficiency (2)

Task

Uv(V)
0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240

SI (W/m2)

Isc (mA)

Repeat procedure for LED and incandescent bulb

1. Set 9 voltage levels on variac, ranging from 0V, in steps of 30 V 2. For each voltage level, measure Isc and solar irradiance (SI) 3. Plot Isc vs SI points 4. Using MS Excel, find Isc = f(SI), including corresponding statistical analysis (LINEST)