Investigation of interface limited charge extraction and recombination in polycrystalline silicon solar cell: Using DC and AC characterization techniques Pankaj Yadav a , Kavita Pandey a , Brijesh Tripathi a,b , Manoj Kumar b,⇑ a School of Solar Energy, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar 382007, India b School of Technology, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar 382007, India Received 8 September 2014; received in revised form 2 March 2015; accepted 6 April 2015 Communicated by: Associate Editor Elias K. Stefanakos Abstract The present work reports an experimental study for the direct determination of broad range of performance indicating parameters of polycrystalline silicon solar cell by using direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) characterization techniques. The DC charac- terization technique is employed to obtain the characteristic features of solar cell like fill factor, efficiency, series resistance and ideality factor. The AC characterization technique provides resolved electrical response of the resistances and capacitances of p–p + (back surface field) and n + –p junctions, series resistance of the solar cell as well as the lifetime of minority charge carriers. The current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics demonstrate the existence of non-linear shunt paths and higher charge recombination for a less efficient polycrys- talline silicon solar cell. The impedance spectroscopy results reveal that a low fill factor observed for less efficient silicon solar cell is due to the hindrance of charge carriers in active layer and low Fermi level degeneracy at Aluminium/Silicon (Al/Si) interface. The obtained DC and AC parameters and their underlying mechanisms are also examined using the proposed theoretical model. The results presented here demonstrate that the DC technique coupled with AC characterization technique can be quantitatively utilized for the investigation of unexplored fundamental and applied aspects of silicon solar cells. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Silicon solar cell; Impedance spectroscopy; Current density–voltage; Back surface field 1. Introduction Silicon (Si) solar cells have emerged as a promising alter- native to the conventional energy sources because of their abundance, sustainability and convenience. The continuing research and developments in Si solar cell technologies have introduced novel cell designs, new materials and pro- cessing methods. Among photovoltaic (PV) technologies, solar cell and module production based on single crystal and polycrystalline Si is the oldest and matured technology with 80–90% share in worldwide installations (Green, 2009, 2003). In general, the direct current (DC) characterization technique is used to characterize the Si solar cell to measure short circuit current density (J SC ), open circuit voltage (V OC ), the maximum power point (P max ), efficiency (g), fill factor (FF), series (R S ) and shunt resistance (R SH )(Yadav et al., 2013; Kelzenberg et al., 2008; Charles et al., 1981; Schmidt et al., 2008; Jensen et al., 2002). However, DC techniques are not particularly useful for probing various performance limiting parameters of a Si solar cell, e.g., (1) the response to a transient load (Garland et al., 2011), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2015.04.011 0038-092X/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 79 2327 5428; fax: +91 79 2327 5030. E-mail address: manoj.kumar@sse.pdpu.ac.in (M. Kumar). www.elsevier.com/locate/solener Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect Solar Energy 116 (2015) 293–302