Contactless measurement of recombination lifetime in photovoltaic materials

Abstract

Contactless measurement of important semiconductor parameters has become a popular trend of current semiconductor technology. Here we describe an improved version of radio frequency photoconductive decay (RFPCD) operating in the ultra-high frequency (UHF) region. This work shows that the improved technique is capable of measuring samples ranging in size from submicron thin films to large silicon ingots. The UHF region is an ideal compromise for volume penetration and lifetime resolution with system response of 10 ns or less.