First working group meeting on the minority carrier diffusion length/lifetime measurement: Results of the round robin lifetime/diffusion length tests

As was noted in the cover letter that accompanied the samples, the eleven bare silicon samples were from various manufacturers. Table I lists the codes for the samples and the manufacturer of each sample. It also notes if the sample was single or poly-crystalline. The samples had been polished on one side before being sent out for measurements, but no further processing was done. The participants of the study were asked to measure either the lifetime or diffusion length of each of the samples using their standard procedure. Table II shows the experimental conditions used by the groups who measured diffusion length. All the diffusion length measurements were performed using the Surface Photovoltage method (SPV). Table M shows the experimental conditions for the lifetime measurements. All the lifetime measurements were made using the Photoconductance Decay method (PCD) under low level injection. These tables show the diameter of the spot size used during the measurement (the effective sampling area), the locations where measurements were taken, and the number of measurements taken at each location. Table N shows the results of the measurements. The table is divided into diffusion length and lifetime measurements for each sample. The values listed are the average values reported by each group. One of the immediate artifacts seen in the data is the large variation in the lifetime measurements. The values from MIT and Mobil are generally close. However, the measurements from NCSU are typically an order of magnitude lower