The Influence of Energetic Depth of Defects on the Measured Optoelectronic Time Constants and Ideality Factors
Sandheep Ravishankar a, Nada Alati a, Jiashang Zhao a
a Institute of Energy Materials and Devices (IMD-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Wilhelm-Johnen-Straße 52428 Jülich, Germany
Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2026 Conference (MATSUSSpring26)
G2 Monitoring the degradation mechanisms of photovoltaic devices by optoelectronic characterization
Barcelona, Spain, 2026 March 23rd - 27th
Organizers: Enrique H. Balaguera and Emilio J. Juarez-Perez
Invited Speaker, Sandheep Ravishankar, presentation 368
Publication date: 15th December 2025

The determination of the energetic depth of a defect is of fundamental importance to identify the severity of its impact on the performance of the solar cell, particularly when characterizing degradation effects as a function of environmental stressors such as light or temperature. In this regard, we develop the theory of the impact of defect-mediated recombination on the measured time constants from optoelectronic small-perturbation measurements, identifying that the trap depth can be qualitatively determined from the slope of the measured time constants versus quasi-Fermi level splitting. Furthermore, we find that the coupling between the geometric capacitance and bulk recombination leads to the slope factors of the time constants being equal to the ideality factors. We apply these findings to experimental data for perovskite solar cells with different bandgaps, confirming the equality between the slope factors and ideality factors, in addition to identifying the existence of shallow or deep defects in different devices.

We acknowledge funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG,German Research Foundation) – project number 539945054.

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