This paper presents a theoretical study of the external magnetic field and the air mass effects on the carrier density, the transient open circuit voltage decay and the effective minority carrier’s lifetime in a polycrystalline silicon solar cell. From a theoretical approach based on the columnar model of the grains and the quasi-neutral base, the three-dimensional diffusion equation is established and the boundaries conditions are defined in order to use Green’s functions to solve this equation. New analytical expressions of carrier’s density and transient voltage are
also found. The magnetic field and the air mass impacts on transient electrons density and transient open circuit voltage are then analyzed. The effective minority carrier lifetime is extracted from the curve versus time of transient open circuit voltage decay for different values of magnetic field and air mass.

Air mass, bifacial, effective lifetime, magnetic field, solar cell