From Modules to Atoms: Increasing Reliability and Stability of Commercially Relevant Photovoltaic Technologies

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While there are statistical studies and macroscopic descriptions of module-level degradation, there is a lack of understanding of the structural, chemical, and electrical properties at the microscopic scale of how these processes occur and how to reduce or eliminate them. The project will study reliability-related defects in major photovoltaic technologies that include silicon (Si), cadmium telluride (CdTe), and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS). Researchers will use imaging and microscopy characterization tools along with multi-physics modeling to derive the causes of power-limiting defects that are responsible for potential-induced degradation in Si, metastability and transient degradations in CdTe, and increased degradation due to reverse-bias breakdown in CIGS.