Effect of recombination on the open-circuit voltage of a silicon solar cell

A theoretical study of the influence of band-band Auger, band-trap Auger, and the ordinary Shockley–Read–Hall mechanism for carrier recombination on the open-circuit voltage VOC of a solar cell is presented. Under reasonable assumptions for the magnitude of rate constants and realistic values for trap densities, surface recombination velocities and band-gap narrowing, we find the maximum VOC for typical back surface field solar cells to lie in the range between 0.61 and 0.72 V independent of base width.