ABSTRACT
Good agreement between the analytical and numerical models is shown for horizontal grain boundaries in some instances. Two more recent reviews of grain boundaries in polycrystalline semiconductors are given by Grovenor and Thibault et al. Only work of particular relevance to the current model of grain boundary recombination is reviewed here. Their analysis relied on a finite-difference numerical scheme a rudimentary form of the detailed numerical modelling used in this work. From the published models, a preferred physical model for determining recombination properties of a grain boundary emerges. In this article, the author considers parameters relevant to thin-film polycrystalline silicon solar cells but the numerical model is quite general and can easily be applied to other cases. This complexity and the inherent non-linearity of grain boundary recombination lend themselves to numerical modelling using semiconductor device simulators.
