Correlation of acoustically detected thermal waves with injected and photogenerated currents in a photovoltaic cell

Acoustic detection of thermal waves emanating from a photovoltaic cell are employed to quantitatively distinguish between two power dissipation mechanisms, namely, space-charge thermalization of photogenerated carriers and recombination of injected carriers in the base region. The method can aid in quantitative calorimetric investigations of power-loss mechanisms in photovoltaic devices.