Interpretation of the Spectral Response of a Solar Cell in Terms of the Spatial Collection Efficiency

According to a mathematical interpretation developed in our laboratory the spectral response of a solar cell is simply a Laplace transform of the spatial dependent collection efficiency function of the cell. Thus, if the collection efficiency is known important material parameters of the solar cell can be found. The spectral response can easily be measured with an appropriate measurement unit. Thus, by taking an inverse Laplace transform from this measured data, the collection efficiency can be calculated and the solar cell parameters can be extracted. The outstanding benefit of this approach is that the important parameters of the solar cell can be obtained simply by using a mathematical analysis of the spectral response data instead of applying more complicated characterization measurements to the cell itself. We have applied the method to simulated spectral responses as well as spectral responses measured from real solar cells.