Interaction of ultrashort laser pulses and silicon solar cells under short circuit conditions

Ultrashort pulse lasers are promising tools for numerous measurement purposes. Among other benefits their high peak powers allow for efficient generation of wavelengths in broad spectral ranges and at spectral powers that are orders of magnitude higher than in conventional light sources. Very recently this has been exploited for the establishment of sophisticated measurement facilities for electrical characterization of photovoltaic (PV) devices. As the high peak powers of ultrashort pulses promote nonlinear optical effects they might also give rise to nonlinear interactions with the devices under test that possibly manipulate the measurement outcome. In this paper, we present a comprehensive theoretical and experimental study of the nonlinearities affecting short circuit current (I-SC) measurements of silicon (Si) solar cells. We derive a set of coupled differential equations describing the radiation-device interaction and discuss the nonlinearities incorporated in those. By a semi-analytical approach introducing a quasi-steady-state approximation and integrating a Green's function we solve the system of equations and obtain simulated I-SC values. We validate the theoretical model by I-SC ratios obtained from a double ring resonator setup capable for reproducible generation of various ultrashort pulse trains. Finally, we apply the model to conduct the most prominent comparison of I-SC generated by ultrashort pulses versus continuous illumination. We conclude by the important finding that the nonlinearities induced by ultrashort pulses are negligible for the most common I-SC measurements. However, we also find that more specialized measurements (e.g., of concentrating PV or Si-multijunction devices as well as highly localized electrical characterizations) will be biased by two-photon-absorption distorting the I-SC measurement. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.