The minority carrier lifetime of a material is the average time which a carrier can spend in an excited state after electron-hole generation before it recombines. Calculate the minority carrier lifetime (in μs ) for a single crystalline solar cell having diffusion length of Ld=200μm and minority carrier diffusivity of D=27cm2/s .
To calculate the minority carrier lifetime, we need to use the following equation:
τ = L_d² / (2D),
where:
τ is the minority carrier lifetime,
L_d is the diffusion length, and
D is the minority carrier diffusivity.
Given that L_d = 200 μm and D = 27 cm²/s, we need to convert the units to be consistent.
1 μm = 0.01 cm,
1 cm²/s = 10000 μm²/s.
Converting the values, we have:
L_d = 200 μm = 2 cm,
D = 27 cm²/s = 270000 μm²/s.
Now we can substitute these values into the formula:
τ = (2 cm)² / (2 * 270000 μm²/s)
= (4 cm²) / (540000 μm²/s)
≈ 7.41 μs.
Therefore, the minority carrier lifetime for the single crystalline solar cell is approximately 7.41 μs.