Electron Beam Induced Current Measurements of Thin Film Solar Cells

The present tutorial review provides a practical guide to the analysis of semiconductor devices using electron beam induced currents EBIC . The authors focus on cross sectional EBIC measurements that provide an experimental assay of the efficiency of charge carrier collection in a semiconductor diode. The tutorial covers the fundamental physics of the technique, specimen preparation, data acquisition and numerical simulation and analysis of the experimental data. A key focus is put on application cases from the field of thin film photovoltaics as well as specific pitfalls that may occur, such as effects occurring in high level injection and at grain boundaries of polycrystalline material