Understanding the electrochemical mechanisms of light induced plating by means of voltammetric techniques

The requirements for the contact metal deposited on solar cells are rising as the size of solar cells grows. Particularly, the improvement of the electric properties - especially the conductivity - is attracting interest. Light-induced plating is deemed to be a sophisticated approach to deposit a highly conductive metal layer on an arbitrarily generated seed layer. Although already in industrial operation to some extent, the mechanism is not understood in detail. In addition, the aim of avoidance of cyanide containing electrolytes for silver deposition is high. We will show voltammetric techniques are an appropriate approach investigating these topics.