Application of wide angle beam spectroscopic ellipsometry for quality control in solar cell production

Wide angle beam ellipsometry developed by our group uses non-collimated illumination with a special light source and arrangement giving multiple-angle-of-incidence and multiwavelength information. Our aim was to make our wide angle beam ellipsometer suitable for spectral measurement and to obtain the spectra of many points along a long line (presently 0.2 m but it could be increased up to 1 m if necessary) of an entire sample simultaneously. The prototype uses a xenon lamp as a light source with film polarizers and a concave optical grating to reach the desired 6 nm spectral resolution over the range of 360–630 nm. This new technique mixed with an appropriate ellipsometric model has the capability to make “in situ” control in solar cell fabrication. In order to demonstrate the ability of our instrument, wide angle beam spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements were carried out on Al-doped ZnO samples, which have different physical properties such as specific resistance and transparency.