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This paper uses impedance spectroscopy as a simulation tool to analyze grain boundaries properties in poly-crystalline materials. The interfacial structure at grain boundaries in poly-crystalline materials plays a decisive role in their electrical behaviors and degrades the performance in integrated circuits, gas sensors and solar photovoltaics. A numerical simulation is carried out to optimize grain size of poly-crystalline material to behave as mono-like material using impedance spectroscopy technique. The grain boundary potential (Vb) obtained from thermionic emission diffusion theory based continuum and localized energy models are utilized for obtaining the resistance (R), capacitance (C) and angular frequency (ω) of the bulk of the grain (Rb, Cb and ωb) and that of grain boundaries (Rgb, Cgb and ωgb) using the brick layer model. Two markedly different impedance spectra are obtained, one for the bulk of the grain and another for the grain boundaries. It is found that with an increase in the grain size (Lg), the signatures of grain boundaries spectra diminish and at a particular grain size, disappear completely which indicates that the poly-silicon material behaves comparable to mono-crystalline material. In this simulation work, silicon material is taken as the reference due to its abundant availability and huge market potential for photovoltaic and semiconductor applications but the simulation can be implemented on any poly-crystalline materials. The effect of varying silicon material resistivity (1.0–3.5 Ωcm) and temperature (300-420 K) on grain size was also analysed using the impedance spectra. The findings of the paper will be helpful for the silicon ingot growth industries to decide the optimum grain size during the polysilicon materials growth.

Many cases of derailments, train accidents and traffic interruptions due to the slope failure and rockfall have been reported in the past on Konkan Railway trackline because of unstable rock slopes. The authorities installed stability enhancement measures such as wire netting, rock bolting and shotcreting which were found insufficient. The failed geotechnical measures prompted authorities to excavate the unstable slopes. Rock blasting is generally not preferred for the excavation of slopes along the transportation route. Stabilisation and widening of slopes by blasting need closure of the route for a considerable time. Discontinuing traffic on Konkan Railway route was undesirable as it connects two important port cities Mumbai and Mangalore. The paper presents an innovative directional controlled blasting (DCB) technique for excavating three unstable slopes (i.e. cuttings) in hilly terrain without disturbing the traffic. New empirical formulae for small geometry blasting to estimate burden and throw have been developed. A unique sequence of firing and excavation with powder factor varying between 0.04 and 0.39 kg/m3 irrespective of the actual free face was used for rock blasting. The process controlled the throw of blasted material over the track and resulted in a smooth and stable wall. The slope angle has been changed from 80 to 82° to 45–47° and probability of wedge, planar and toppling failures was eliminated. About 100 such accident-prone slopes (52 km cumulative length, 7% of total route) situated at discrete locations along Konkan Railway route were stabilised using the technique. No incident of rockfall and slope failures along these slopes has been observed after the stabilisation.

Recently, research on Si/conducting organic polymer heterojunction solar cells has gained prominence owing to their low fabrication cost and potential for reasonably good efficiency. Poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) coated over n-type Si forms such heterojunction which has theoretical capabilities comparable to the conventional p-n Si junction. However these devices still need fabrication parameters optimization in order to compete with conventional p-n junction silicon solar cells. Here, we report the photoresponse of Ag/PEDOT:PSS/n-SiNW/Al solar cell at different light intensities and different wavelengths. The device is fabricated by spin coating the PEDOT:PSS over n-Si NW based Si substrates. It is further noted that the short circuit current is significantly lower in J-V response than that derived from external quantum efficiency measurements. It is observed that the photocurrent density and fill factor deteriorates significantly at higher intensities. This is suggestive of some space charge build up at Si-PEDOT:PSS interface at higher intensities because of difference in hole mobility in Si and PEDOT:PSS. This could also be strongly attributed to structural changes in the PEDOT:PSS layer which might change the charge carrier dynamics and hence the electrical response of the layer. The response of cell with varying intensity can help to optimize the illumination condition for the cell. The wavelength response of the cell can help us better understand the solar cell working and can help in optimizing the fabrication parameters. This opens up new area of intensive research required in order to optimize polymer layer properties and improving the performance of PEDOT:PSS/SiNW-based solar cell.

Present study reports fabrication of silicon nanowires over micro-textured Si substrates. Silver assisted electroless chemical etching route has been adopted for fabrication of the nanowires. Influence of HF concentration on the formation kinetics has been investigated by using scanning electron microscopy. The hierarchical binary structures have been able to reduce solar weighted reflectance (SWR) to direction. However, with increase in the concentration, etching in both and non- directions such as also occurs on the micro-pyramids of similar dimensions and results in the binary structures with slanted silicon nanowires on 3-dimansional micro-pyramids.

This article focuses on the identification of key features that are responsible for the discrepancies in the performance of silicon solar cells fabricated on multicrystalline silicon under the identical conditions. In an experimental approach, direct current (DC) measurement coupled with alternating current (AC) characterisation technique has been employed. The scanning electron microscope analysis reveals an average grain size of few micrometres for all the solar cells and the top surface of least efficient solar cell contains the impurity precipitates with deep cone shaped holes or pits. The DC measurement reveals that the photocurrent density loss follows an exponential behaviour with respect to the current–voltage characteristics for all the solar cells. The analysis of −dV/dJ versus (JSC − J)−1 plot and the variation of ideality factor with junction voltage demonstrate that the higher resistive and recombination losses dominate the performance of least efficient solar cell. Impedance Spectroscopy (IS) technique is used to quantify and decouple the various photovoltaic parameters associated with the different physical processes. A lower value of shunt resistance and minority carrier lifetime along with the higher value of series resistance contribute to the higher resistive loss and surface recombination. The experimental results along with the analytical model provide an insight into the loss mechanisms and the use of a simple tool that can be integrated with the conventional photovoltaic testing.

Organic/inorganic heterojunctions provide a viable option to replace the conventional high-temperature dopant diffusion-based p–n junction owing to their low manufacturing cost. Thus, there has been increasing interests in low temperature heterojunction solar cell concepts particularly polymer/silicon-based heterojunction solar cells. Here, we report fabrication of heterojunction silicon solar cells employing a relatively rapid and solution-based low temperature (~100 °C) process wherein heterojunctions are made by directly spin coating the poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS), a p-layer on the micro-textured (µT) n-Si substrates. The micro-texturing enhances the surface area as well as reduces reflectance to ~11 % in the spectral range useful for Si solar cell. The role of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) addition in PEDOT:PSS on the performance parameters of the solar cells has been investigated. The PEDOT:PSS layer also acts as a surface passivation layer for n-Si as confirmed by the minority carrier lifetime measurements. Almost threefold enhancement in the photocurrent density (J sc) and a fivefold improvement in the conversion efficiency (η) for an optimized DMSO addition in the polymer have been observed compared to that having no DMSO addition. As a result, a maximum η of 6.45 % and J sc of 27.28 mA/cm2 have been achieved under 100 mW/cm2 irradiation at 25 °C. In these cells, open circuit voltage and fill factor are found low, which is the reason for low device efficiency. However, there is a scope for further improvement in device performance by process optimization particularly metal electrodes, PEDOT:PSS/DMSO layer thickness, PEDOT:PSS/DMSO/µT-Si interface properties, and incorporation of back surface field to exploit the full potential of such concepts.

Minimization of reflection losses is extremely important for efficient silicon solar cells made either on mono crystalline (c-) or multi-crystalline (mc-) silicon (Si) substrates. A simple and fast etching process yet effective for nano-scale texturing of mc-Si surface using silver assisted wet chemical etching is reported. This results in very low reflecting (

We have formed photoluminescent porous silicon (PS) layers and over which a ZnO layer (hereafter called ZnOPS layers) is deposited. We studied the photoluminescent properties of individual layers as well as the composite layer under excitation with 405 nm wavelength. Using the data of PL a theoretical analysis of a solar cell having such a composite layer of a given photoluminescent conversion efficiency η PL on the front surface has been done. The condition of a photoluminescent composite layer (ZnOPS) useful for enhancing the spectral response of n + -p-p + structured silicon solar cell has been identified.

In2O3 nanocones were synthesized on silicon substrates using thermal evaporation of In2O3 precursor powder followed by annealing in oxygen ambient. The morphology and aspect ratio of the nanocones strongly depend on the thermal budget during processing. The grown structures had tapered morphology as observed from microscopic analysis. The layers showed a minimum reflectance of ∼3% over a wide range of spectrum from 300 nm to 1100 nm with a high transmittance of ∼90%. The material has an energy band gap of 3.93 eV. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed that the annealed layers were crystallized in (2 2 2) plane. Moreover, these layers showed photoluminescence at 464 nm, 481 nm, 487 nm and 558 nm under the excitation wavelength of 325 nm. This frequency (photon) shifting towards more favourable wavelength regime is expected to improve the blue response of the solar cell device.

Aluminum rich zinc oxide (AZO) film was made on silicon substrates by spin coating using a precursor containing Al and Zn in the 20% atomic ratio. The films were annealed in air atmosphere and in hydrogen ambient. The minimum reflectance (Rλ) in air annealed (AZO:Air) samples was ∼2.5% in the vicinity (±50 nm) of 750 nm, however, the value was marginally lower (∼2%) in hydrogen annealed (AZO:H2) samples. The average Rλ over 300–1200 nm range was 18.5% and 14.1% respectively. An additional XRD peak of H2Al10O16 at 2θ = 51.5° corresponding to (1 2 1) reflection plane was observed in the AZO:H2 film. The AZO films were applied on the front and back surfaces of bifacial crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells where an improvement both in short circuit current density (Jsc) and open circuit voltage (Voc) was observed. The values of Jsc and Voc after AZO:Air were increased by 23% and ∼10 mV respectively w.r.t without AZO layer cells which on subsequent annealing in H2 raised to 32% and ∼21 mV. Jsc (AZO:Air) was used to calculate the expected enhancement in Voc which matched with the measured increase in Voc. The improvement in Jsc is due to reduced reflectance and, hence, the observed increase in Voc (AZO:Air) is attributed to it. On the other hand, increase in Voc after AZO:H2 step was much more and cannot be accounted only by Rλ, and therefore, the additional enhancement in Voc is attributed to back surface passivation that has occurred after annealing of the solar cells in hydrogen ambient. This attribution is substantiated by the internal and external quantum efficiencies (IQE and EQE) after back and front illumination of the solar cells and minority carrier lifetime measurements. The IQE data was used to calculate the diffusion length (Ln) of the base region where the value of Ln did not change after AZO:Air layer (=130 μm for Cell #1) but its value substantially increased (=244 μm) after the AZO:H2 treatment. This observation further reiterates our claim that the AZO film has surface passivation property.

Solar photovoltaic (SPV) is capable of providing the most feasible carbon-free route to the worldwide traditional power consumption. During the last decade, there has been tremendous development in silicon wafer based photovoltaic (PV) cells technology and today commercial silicon PV cells over 20 % efficiencies have been achieved. However, large-scale implementation of silicon wafer PV is currently not economical because of their high cost as compared to traditional power sources. One of the primary cost components for silicon PV cells is the starting silicon wafer, which requires extensive purification to maintain reasonable performance. Therefore, development of efficient and low cost PV devices is extremely important. Silicon nanowires (SiNWs) are a very promising candidate for next generation PV. The SiNW arrays exhibit low reflection, strong broadband light absorption and may be used as antireflection surface in solar cells. In addition to enhanced optical properties, nanowire arrays also have the potential for efficient charge carrier collection across the nanowire diameter for radial junction (homo/hetro p-n junctions) solar cells and therefore may relax high quality material requirement, enabling lower-cost PV cells. In the chapter, a short review of aperiodic SiNW arrays fabrication by silver assisted wet chemical etching method, their light trapping properties and PV applications with emphasis on SiNW arrays based solar cells would be presented. Finally, challenges in effective use of SiNW arrays in PV devices and future perspective would also be briefly discussed.

A study of the effect of hydrogen annealing on antireflection and surface passivation properties of sol–gel derived aluminum rich zinc oxide (AZO) films coated on silicon wafers has been done in 300–600 °C temperature range. The minority carrier lifetime in silicon wafers coated with AZO films was measured using microwave photoconductive decay (μ-PCD) technique. After annealing of AZO coated silicon wafer in hydrogen ambient for 30 min between 400 and 600 °C the effective minority carrier lifetime τeff improved above the initial value of ∼16 μs and attained a maximal value of ∼71 μs for annealing at 500 °C. It may be that above 400 °C the molecular hydrogen gets dissociated into atomic hydrogen in presence of Al induced defects at the AZO coated silicon surface and passivates them by formation of Si–H–Al complex. The annealing in air in the same temperature range did not affect the lifetime. AZO films annealed at 500 °C in hydrogen or air show high transmittance in 400–1200 nm wavelength range and are suitable as AR coatings for silicon solar cells. We have applied a hydrogen annealed AZO antireflection coating on n+ front surface and an equally thick hydrogen annealed AZO coating on the p-back surface of an n+-p multi crystalline silicon solar cell. The observed improvement in Jsc, Voc values of the cell established that while AZO film on front acted as a good AR coating the AZO film on the back surface passivated the back surface effectively.

We report a relatively simple process for fast nano-texturing of p-type (1 0 0) silicon surface using silver catalyzed wet chemical etching in aqueous hydrofluoric acid and hydrogen peroxide solution at room temperature. In this approach, a fine textured black surface was achieved in about 15–30 s duration with reflectivity less than 4% in 400–1000 nm range. The reflectivity versus texturization time has been investigated and co-related with morphological characteristics of the nano-textured-silicon (nT-Si) surfaces. The nano-texturization process is also applicable in multi-crystalline silicon. Further, n + –p–p + structured solar cells have been fabricated on such nT-Si substrates following the standard fabrication protocol. Significant improvement in short circuit current density (>20%) and efficiency (∼1.25% absolute) has been achieved compared with planar control cell without deterioration of other performance parameters (such as open circuit voltage and fill factor). Light beam induced current measurements have also been carried out to show the spatial distribution of the light trapping and current in the planar and the nT-Si solar cells.

Antireflection titanium dioxide (TiO2) coatings have been developed on monocrystalline silicon by a sol–gel spin-coating process using titanium di-isopropoxidebis(acetylacetonate) colloidal precursor solution. The effect of titanium content in the precursor, spin rate, sintering duration and temperature have been studied and their effect on coating thickness and optical properties (i.e., refractive index and reflectivity) were investigated. The influence of post-deposition sintering temperature on the optical characteristics, composition and the microstructure of the coatings have been evaluated by UV–vis spectroscopy, ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction techniques. Solar cells made on silicon wafers with TiO2 as antireflection layer showed enhancement of more than 20% in short circuit current density in comparison to a cell devoid of the TiO2 coating.

Porous silicon (PS) layers were formed on p-type, 〈1 0 0〉 oriented, 1–5 Ω cm resistivity Cz silicon wafers by electrochemical etching in an HF:C 2 H 5 OH (1:2 by volume) electrolyte at room temperature at a constant current density 20 mA/cm 2 . The etching duration was varied to achieve PS layers of different morphologies and thicknesses. Both the photoluminescence (PL) and the total diffused reflectivity spectra of the PS layers were measured. It was found that for the PS layers grown for etching durations of less than 90 s the PL emission is insignificant and reflectivity is quite low. Such PS layers can be used as antireflection coatings (ARC) on solar cells. The PS layers formed for etching durations greater than 90 s show a significant PL emission in 500–800 nm range with peak lying in 630–660 nm wavelength range. When etching duration increases from 90 s to 8 min the PL intensity increases and the PL peak shows a blue shift. With further increase in etching duration the PL intensity decreases and PL peak shows a red shift. The reflectivity of the photoluminescent layers increases with etching duration showing a highest value for a sample grown for 8 min. Further increase in etching duration up to 20 min the reflectivity decreases and then increases. Striking observation is that both the PL emission intensity and reflectivity in the wavelength range of 550–800 nm are maximum for the PS layer grown for the etching duration of 8 min.

Capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements were carried out on conventional n+-p-p+ structure based silicon solar cells (SSC) of different thicknesses (40–300 μm) and on induced junction n+-p-p+ structures (IJS) under dark at room temperature. The capacitance is determined from the best fit of the measured data. It is shown that the capacitance under reverse and forward bias condition can be divided into two distinct regions, which are correlated to the quality of the junction and effectiveness of back surface field (BSF). It is found that the IJS has shallow junction and better BSF than the conventional solar cells.

Growth of high quality III-nitride films on high-k oxide/Si substrates is crucial for the fabrication of nitride based metal-oxide-semiconductor devices. Here, we report the effect of nitridation of HfO2 surface on the physical properties of gallium nitride (GaN) films grown on HfO2 (5 nm)/p-Si(100) substrates using laser molecular beam epitaxy (LMBE) technique. The grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) measurements showed the prominent GaN growth along (0002) direction. It is observed that the HfO2 nitridation significantly improves the surface coverage of GaN film with larger grains of size in the range 200 ~ 250 nm. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy exhibits a sharp, intense near band-edge emission line at 3.4 eV with negligible defect-related deep bands for the GaN film grown with HfO2 nitridation. Also, the current-voltage characteristics of Au/GaN Schottky contacts show a reduced leakage current for HfO2 nitridation. Thus, the surface nitridation of HfO2 is found vital to improve the quality of GaN films for the development of GaN-on-Si technology.

Sodium phosphate glass systems with AgCl as dopant (0 and 15 mol%) have been synthesized by melt-quenching technique. The glasses in bulk form were characterized by X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy and their thermal and electrical properties were investigated. These glasses were deposited on glass substrates by thermal evaporation method in thin film form and annealed at 600 °C. The influence of deposition in thin film form and annealing on structure and optical properties (transmittance, absorbance and optical gap) have showed that both doped and undoped as-deposited glass films have a porous, granular structure and considerable grain coarsening and densification occur upon annealing at 600 °C. The optical transmittance of the film is found to decrease in visible region as a function of annealing and doping. The annealed 15 mol% doped film shows a prominent absorbance peak at 430 nm, which is ascribed to Ag+(5s) ← O(n) electronic transitions.

The electrical properties of an n+–p–p+ structure-based single-crystalline silicon solar cell were studied by impedance spectroscopy, I–V and spectral response. The impedance spectrum is measured in dark, under different intensities (14, 43, 57, 71, 86, 100 mW/cm2) of illumination and wavelengths (400–1050 nm) of light. Under dark and at low intensities of illumination (

We report the fabrication of buried contact solar cells using porous silicon as sacrificial layer to create well-defined channels (for buried contacts) in silicon. In this paper, the salient features of the technology have been presented. No detrimental effect was found in the performance of buried contact solar cell with partially filled contact area compared to the solar cells having conventional planar contacts. However, a marked difference in the short circuit current density was seen when channel was fully filled with metal by screen printing, without degradation in the open-circuit voltage. It is expected that improved processing in combination with optimized buried metallic contact parameters may yield higher efficiencies that may result in substantial decrease in solar cell cost.

Minority carrier lifeline, τ, is one of the most important parameters which has a decisive effect on the performance of silicon devices based on excess carriers. The value of τ is greatly affected by the presence of impurities and defects in silicon and its value provides a fair indication of quality of the material. Photoconductivity decay (PCD) and photocurrent generation (PCG) methods are simple and low cost methods of measurement of minority carrier lifetime in silicon wafers. However, their application requires care. The PCD method can give quite misleading results in case of polycrystalline wafers if there exists potential barriers at the grain boundaries which may affect majority carrier mobility significantly. PCG needs creation of an inducedp +-p-n + structure of substantially good quality that should not degrade with time. For PCG method the T measurement under vacuum conditions provides correct and consistent results.

Silicon surface passivation is studied using Al2O3 thin film deposited by thermal process using atomic layer deposition (ALD) method. Minority carrier lifetime measurements showed that the film passivate the silicon surface effectively. Capacitance–voltage measurement confirms the activation of negative fixed charges after sintering at 400 °C.

Large area silicon solar cells with screen printed contacts have been realized for the first time on 10 cm diameter, p-type, Cz silicon wafers which were bonded to silicon substrates by alloying of a suitably thick screen printed layer of Al on them. In cells made on 300 μm thick wafers without texturization, antireflection coating and passivation of the front surface, the values of the open-circuit voltage (Voc), the short-circuit current density (Jsc), curve factor (CF) and the efficiency (η) were found to be in the range 572–579 mV, 16–19.2 mA cm−2, 0.53–0.61 and 5.5–5.89%, respectively, under simulated tungsten halogen light of 100 mW cm−2 intensity. Using thinner wafers and having optical confinement, surface passivation and effective back surface field, the cell performance would be substantially improved. In fact, an efficiency close to 18% (AM1.5) would be realizable with this approach. Another attractive feature of this approach is that a low-cost silicon substrate could be used at the bottom that would act as support for the thin top surface without disadvantage to the cell performance. In this paper only the principle has been demonstrated experimentally. Possible improvements have been shown by computer simulation.

Nanostructured ZnO has been synthesized by wet chemical route. Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) is used for stabilization and surface passivation of synthesized nanoparticles, thus tailoring the growth of ZnO at nanoscale. Structural characterization using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron micoroscopy and Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy of the synthesized nanoparticles confirm the evolution of nanocrystalline ZnO prevailing in hexagonal wurtzite phase. UV–Vis and photoluminescence spectroscopy studies show blue shift phenomenon in the synthesized nanoparticle in contrast to the bulk ZnO furnishing evidence in support of quantum size effect. The nanocomposites of ZnO and poly [9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl] are prepared and characterized to investigate its luminescent and spectral emission effects. The nanocomposites are then incorporated in light-emitting diodes, and influence of ZnO on the device performance has been explored via electroluminescence, current density evaluation, and corresponding CIE coordinates calculation.

In this paper an artificial neural net (ANN) is suggested for implementation as a reference commutation signal generator for speed control of permanent magnet brushless DC motor in X-PC target: domain in overloaded condition. The ANN is trained in the continuous time and then it is transformed to discrete time. The reason for this transformation is that the X-PC target accepts only discrete models. The ANN is initially optimised by obtaining continuous time domain data by experimentation. Since the actual system is an embedded system hence the ANN is transformed to discrete model and then it is interfaced to the transfer function model of PMBLDC motor to analyse its performance. After optimisation the system is targeted for an X-PC target by discretising the model for a specified sampling rate based on the performance of the interface card. The system is tested in real time and is working as designed. The system is responding to the overload conditions in an almost linearised manner which is not the normal characteristics of the PMBLDC motor

Vertically aligned silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays have been fabricated over a large area using a silver-assisted single-step electroless wet chemical etching (EWCE) method, which involves the etching of silicon wafers in aqueous hydrofluoric acid (HF) and silver nitrate (AgNO3) solution. A comprehensive systematic investigation on the influence of different parameters, such as the etching time (up to 15 h), solution temperature (10–80 °C), AgNO3 (5–200 mM) and HF (2–22 M) concentrations, and properties of the multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) wafers, is presented to establish a relationship of these parameters with the SiNW morphology. A linear dependence of the NW length on the etch time is obtained even at higher temperature (10–50 °C). The activation energy for the formation of SiNWs on Si(100) has been found to be equal to ~0.51 eV . It has been shown for the first time that the surface area of the Si wafer exposed to the etching solution is an important parameter in determining the etching kinetics in the single-step process. Our results establish that single-step EWCE offers a wide range of parameters by means of which high quality vertical SiNWs can be produced in a very simple and controlled manner. A mechanism for explaining the influence of various parameters on the evolution of the NW structure is discussed. Furthermore, the SiNW arrays have extremely low reflectance (as low as

Minority carrier lifetime in silicon wafers has been measured by applying an impedance spectroscopy technique (IST). Induced p+–p and p–n junctions were formed on both sides of the silicon wafer by thermally evaporating semitransparent metal layers of palladium and aluminium respectively. As such, no thermal treatment was given to the device, and therefore there is no diffusion of impurities inside the semiconductor and the two junctions are induced in the form of accumulation and depletion regions of charge carriers respectively. Both generation and recombination lifetimes applicable under the reverse and forward bias conditions respectively have been measured. The generation lifetime was estimated to be around 73 µs, whereas the recombination lifetime has been found to be about 11 µs. It is shown that the effective recombination lifetime is determined mainly by surface recombination velocity at the silicon–palladium interface. The effective minority carrier lifetime as measured by the microwave-detected photoconductive decay method on the same sample is 12 µs which is close to the measured recombination value by the IST. This shows that impedance spectroscopy can be used to measure effective lifetime of the wafer using an induced junction structure prior to the formation of an actual device like the solar cell. Moreover, the series resistance (Rs), diode ideality factor (n) and barrier height (Vbi) obtained from C–V (using the IST) data as well as the I–V measurement of the device show agreement with the expected device parameters. Thus, the IST can be effectively employed as a tool in extracting many relevant characteristic parameters of the material and the device.