Origin of reverse annealing in radiation‐damaged silicon solar cells

Relative defect concentrations, energy levels, capture cross sections, and minority carrier diffusion lengths are used to identify the defect responsible for the reverse annealing observed in a radiation‐damaged n+/p silicon solar cell. The responsible defect, with energy level at Ev+0.30 eV, has been tentatively identified as a boron‐oxygen‐vacancy complex. It is shown tht removal of this defect could result in significant cell recovery when annealing at temperatures well below the currently required 400 °C.