The paper presents the results of research on commercial photovoltaic cells made of crystalline silicon. In particular, the focus was on the description of the elaborated by the authors measuring system with measurements methodology used for assessment of the influence of temperature on spectral characteristics of the tested cells, describing the dependence of the current sensitivity (spectral response, responsivity) and the external quantum efficiency on the wavelength of optical radiation. The investigations carried out in the proposed test system made it possible to evaluate the properties of the cells in the conditions similar to the operating conditions.

The temperature dependence of photoluminescence spectra has been studied for the HgCdTe epilayer. At low temperatures, the signal has plenty of band-tail states and shallow/deep defects which makes it difficult to evaluate the material bandgap. In most of the published reports, the photoluminescence spectrum containing multiple peaks is analyzed using a Gaussian fit to a particular peak. However, the determination of the peak position deviates from the energy gap value. Consequently, it may seem that a blue shift with increasing temperature becomes apparent. In our approach, the main peak was fitted with the expression proportional to the product of the joint density of states and the Boltzmann distribution function. The energy gap determined on this basis coincides in the entire temperature range with the theoretical Hansen dependence for the assumed Cd molar composition of the active layer. In addition, the result coincides well with the bandgap energy determined on the basis of the cut-off wavelength at which the detector response drops to 50% of the peak value.