When exposed to light, excess charge carriers in a solar cell should be collected at the electrical contacts to generate a photocurrent. Any failure in this collection process results in energy losses.
It therefore serves as an optimal starting point to analyse performance losses of solar cells. Current density–voltage characteristics (J–V s) are widely acknowledged as the cornerstone measurement in solar cell (SC) research since they allow for the quantification of a SC's power conversion efficiency (PCE).
Moreover, the flowchart proposes supplementary experiments that can be conducted to obtain a more precise prediction of the primary performance losses. It therefore serves as an optimal starting point to analyse performance losses of solar cells.
This study presents an overview of the key aspects of J–V analysis and introduces a user-friendly flowchart that facilitates the swift identification of the most probable limiting process in a solar cell, based mainly on the outcomes of light-intensity-dependent J–V measurements.
The EL images of the GaAs solar cell were measured by a silicon charge-coupled device (CCD) (Hamamatsu C8484-05C) fixed above the cell, the CCD camera could directly give the absolute EL intensity, which has been calibrated in advance by using a standard planar LED [ 12 ], the uncertainty in the calibration was estimated smaller than 10% [ 12 ]. 3.