On the Conversion Between Recombination Rates and Electronic Defect Parameters in Semiconductors

With the remarkable advances in semiconductor processing, devices such as solar cells have fewer and fewer defects that impact their performance. Determination of the defects that currently limit the device performance, predominantly by increasing the charge carrier recombination rate, has become more challenging with standard methods like deep level transient spectroscopy. To circumvent this limitation, the photovoltaic community is attempting to use the measurement of the charge carrier recombination rates to identify the remaining defects, as this approach is intrinsically sensitive to the defects that limit the cell's/sample's performance/lifetime. This article reviews this new approach, contrasting it with the developments that have occurred with deep-level transient spectroscopy, finding several critical limitations in the current assumptions, and providing suggestions for an improved strategy.