An automated steady state photocarrier grating experiment.

The design of an automated steady state photocarrier grating (SSPG) experiment is presented that matches most of the requirements of an industrial environment. We first briefly recall the bases of the SSPG technique and that the minority carrier diffusion length deduced from this experiment is a key parameter in the fabrication of thin film solar devices. We then underline the main drawbacks of the use of the classical SSPG technique as an industrial and systematic characterization technique mostly that all the adjustments have to be done manually. We show that this issue can be overcome to end with a compact (90 × 60 cm(2)), fast, reliable, and easy-to-use system that could become a routine characterization technique for research laboratories and thin film solar industry. We illustrate the possibilities of this new system by showing some of the results obtained with it on very different thin films.