Solar Cell (Panel) birefringence

Solar cell (solar panel) birefringence is caused by stress in the silicon manufacturing process.  This stress has been linked to lowered lifetimes in photovoltaic applications¹.  Hinds Instruments NIR Exicor is capable of plotting these stresses in 2 dimensions in silicon wafers.
 

Left: Residual birefringence map of sample A (diameter: 90 mm and thickness: 5.25 mm); Center: Residual birefringence map of a 4” silicon wafer; Right: Residual birefringence map of sample B (diameter 65 mm x 65 mm x 10 mm)
 

SYSTEMS AVAILABLE:

Exicor NIR
 

FURTHER READING

¹ Shijiang He, Steven Danyluk, I. Tatasov, and Sergei Ostapenko, "Residual Stresses in Polycrystaline Silicon Sheet and Their Relation to Electron-Hole Lifetime", Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 251910 (2005)

B. Wang, “A Near Infrared Linear Birefringence Measurement System Using a Photoelastic Modulator”, SPIE Proceedings, Vol. 4399, June 2001
 

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