Epitaxial Thin Film Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells on Low Cost Silicon Carriers

Nanostructured multilayer TiO2–Ge films with quantum confinement effects for photovoltaic applications

“…Currently a new generation solar cell concept has been born: the ''third generation" based on nanostructured materials for their quantum confinement effects. The interest in the development of these materials is the potential to increase the efficiency of the photovoltaic devices by improving the coverage of the solar spectrum and reducing the energy losses of photon absorption [1][2][3][4][5][6][7].…”

Inductively coupled plasma grown semiconductor films for low cost solar cells with improved light-soaking stability

“…4,5 Furthermore, the resulting solar cell is quickly degraded by the photo-generated defects. [6][7][8] Although by using thinner absorber layer in an a-Si solar cell, researchers can reduce the photo-induced degradation to 15% after 1000-h exposure with one-sun irradiance at 50 C, they need to employ a more sophisticated light trapping scheme in the device to maintain the PV efficiency. 7,8 Typically in an a-Si:H film, recombination of photo-generated charge carriers creates extra dangling bonds.…”

“…[6][7][8] Although by using thinner absorber layer in an a-Si solar cell, researchers can reduce the photo-induced degradation to 15% after 1000-h exposure with one-sun irradiance at 50 C, they need to employ a more sophisticated light trapping scheme in the device to maintain the PV efficiency. 7,8 Typically in an a-Si:H film, recombination of photo-generated charge carriers creates extra dangling bonds. 8,9 It is highly desired to develop a low-thermal budget thin-film deposition technique for fabricating low cost PV panel with high light-soaking stability.…”

“…7,8 Typically in an a-Si:H film, recombination of photo-generated charge carriers creates extra dangling bonds. 8,9 It is highly desired to develop a low-thermal budget thin-film deposition technique for fabricating low cost PV panel with high light-soaking stability. Capacitor-type low-density plasma such as RF-PECVD generates abundant short-life silane-related radicals SiH x (0 5 x 5 2), which eventually form weak bonding configuration.…”

“…Capacitor-type low-density plasma such as RF-PECVD generates abundant short-life silane-related radicals SiH x (0 5 x 5 2), which eventually form weak bonding configuration. 4,8,9 Inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (ICP-CVD) system, 10,11 because of its high fractional ionization capacity, can produce high-density plasma to improve diffusion of the reactive radicals on substrates even at fairly low deposition temperatures. The configuration of ICP system with high density plasma separated from the thin film growing region effectively reduces the possibility of ion bombardment on growing surface, resulting in a film with low density of defects.…”