Solar electricity is more expensive than that produced by traditional sources. But over the past two decades, the cost gap has been closing. Solar photovoltaic (SPV) technology has emerged as a useful power source of applications such as lightning, meeting the electricity needs of villages, hospitals, telecommunications, and houses. The long and increasing dominance of crystalline silicon in photovoltaic (PV) market is perhaps surprising given the wide variety of materials capable of producing the photovoltaic effect. PV based on silicon wafers has captured more than 90% market share because it is more reliable and generally more efficient than competing technologies. The crystalline silicon PV is reliable as far as long term stability in real field but it is not economically viable due to starting material silicon itself costly. But still, research continues on developing a diverse set of alternative photovoltaic technology. Now PV technology is being increasingly recognized as a part of the solution to the growing energy challenge and an essential component of future global energy production. In this paper, we give a brief review about PV technology particularly crystalline silicon PV including the world and Indian PV scenarios.

Novel Diamond-like Nanocomposite (DLN) thin film as Anti-Reflective Nanocomposite Based (ARNAB) coating for crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell is the main objective of this paper. The DLN film was deposited by plasma assisted chemical vapour deposition (PACVD) method and characterized by Fourier transform infrared, field emission scanning electron microscope, and high resolution transmission emission microscope. Results show that c-Si3N4 and c-SiC nanoparticle (3–5 nm) were embedded in a-C:H matrix, and they were interpenetrated by Si-C bonding, i.e., typical DLN structure. The optical properties of the film were investigated by UV-VIS-near-infrared and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The performance of ARNAB coating was evaluated by measuring the reflectance, external quantum efficiency (EQE), and conversion efficiency. The solar weighted average reflection from textured c-Si was reduced to 2.25% in wavelength range 300 nm–1100 nm, and more than 90% EQE of the solar cell was achieved within the broad wavelength range 560 nm–870 nm. The result has been also compared with conventional silicon nitride anti-reflection coating (ARC). Finally, 0.8% absolute increased of efficiency was achieved with ARNAB layer in comparison with silicon nitride AR coating. The ARNAB thin film has a great potential to be used as ARC for silicon based solar cell.

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The wear and friction of diamond-like nanocomposite (DLN) film have been investigated in air with different relative humidity (RH), under deionized (DI) water and saline solution. The structure of the film has been characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The result shows two interpenetrating network structure: a-C:H and a-Si:O, and they are interpenetrated by Si-C bonding. The tribological performance has been measured using ball-ondisc tribometer with tungsten carbide ball as counterbody at 10 N normal load. Results show that with increasing relative humidity (RH) from 35% to 80%, the coefficient of friction (COF) increases gradually from 0.005 to 0.074, whereas with increasing RH the wear factor decreases from 9.8 × 10 −8 mm 3 /Nm and attains a minimum value of 2.7 × 10 −8 mm 3 /Nm at 50% RH. With further increase of RH the wear factor increases again. Moreover, in DI water and especially in saline solution, both the COF and wear factor have been found to be significantly low. A clue has been interpreted to understand environmental dependency, considering the effect of surface dangling bonds, charge transfer, and chemical interactions.