Unusual Capacitance Emission Transients in CIGS Caused by Large Defect Entropy Changes

Capacitance transient data from bias-pulse experiments on CdS/CIGS solar cells show an unusual behavior at high temperatures. Above 350 K, a minority-carrier trap, with a larger activation energy than a majority-carrier trap, emits faster than the lower activation-energy minority trap. A simple enthalpy model for trap emission cannot explain this counterintuitive behavior; but the more complete Gibbs free-energy model that includes entropy can explain it. We show that entropy plays a major role in carrier emission from traps in CIGS.