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Researchers from the University of Stuttgart, the Research Center Jülich, and Solarzentrum Stuttgart have come up with a way to check the efficiency of solar cells — with nothing more than a lightly-modified off-the-shelf consumer-grade digital camera.
"An electroluminescence image contains much more quantitative information than simply showing bright and dark regions," explains co-author Jürgen Werner of the team's work. "With a suitable physical camera model and calibration, it can provide absolute luminescent quantum efficiency and, therefore, information about the local quality of a solar cell or module. Our approach shows that even a relatively inexpensive consumer camera can provide quantitative results when its physical response is properly modeled and calibrated."
Quantifying the efficiency of solar cell, whether it's straight off the factory floor or has been installed in-the-field for some time, can already be done by testing the cell's luminescent quantum efficiency — but it requires extremely expensive lab-grade camera systems. The team's contribution to the field is a way to modify cheap off-the-shelf consumer-grade cameras to capture the same information by removing the camera's usual internal infrared filter and replacing it with an external long-pass filter.
The result: a camera that can see in the infrared. It's a technique that has long been used by photographers to capture otherworldly images, but combined with careful measurement of the camera's capabilities means that it can be used to replace expensive lab equipment — making luminescent quantum efficiency measurement within the reach of more people.
"Our next step is to use the calibrated camera to determine quantum efficiencies and open-circuit voltages of further, previously uncharacterized solar cells and modules," Werner adds. "The same model should also be applicable to photoluminescence measurements and potentially to measurements performed in daylight."
The team's work has been published in The Journal of Applied Physics.
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