Normal laser damage of silicon solar cells without phase change

Abstract

An experimental study has been made of the damage to floating zone (FZ) and pulled (CZ) n/p‐type silicon solar cells caused by a normal ruby laser. Although the cells were irradiated below the power density at which phase change occurred, the degradation of the normalized short‐circuit current was observed mainly in the long‐wavelength region. This result indicates that some kind of thermal defects are induced by laser quenching. Approximately 60–70% of the laser‐induced defects annealed out at room temperature.