Modeling of annealing kinetics for hydrogenated-amorphous-silicon-based solar cells using two-component metastable defects

We propose a kinetic model for the annealing in p-i-n-type hydrogenated-amorphous-silicon (a-Si:H)-based solar cells using a combination of the fill factor and “fast” and “slow” metastable defect states in their absorbers. Reported annealing data are simulated on p-i-n-type a-Si:H-based solar cells using the proposed model in order to confirm its validity. The recovery kinetic dependence on the thermal annealing temperature, biased voltage, and phase of the absorber controlled by the hydrogen dilution ratio during deposition are reviewed. Furthermore, we suggest a recovery mechanism for the solar cells based on long range hydrogen diffusion.