scholarly journals Grown Low-Temperature Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Film by VHF PECVD for Thin Films Solar Cell

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanglong Peng ◽  
Desheng Wang ◽  
Fuhua Yang ◽  
Zhanguo Wang ◽  
Fei Ma
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Thin Films ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
High Growth ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Silicon Thin Films

Hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon thin films can be used to fabricate stable thin film solar cell, which were deposited by very high frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at low temperatures (~200°C). It has been found that the obtained film presented excellent structural and electrical properties, such as high growth rate and good crystallinity. With the decreasing of silane concentration, the optical gap and the dark conductivity increased, whereas the activation energy decreased. A reasonable explanation was presented to elucidate these phenomena. In addition, we fabricated p-i-n structure solar cells using the optimum microcrystalline silicon thin films, and preliminary efficiency of 4.6% was obtained for 1 μm thick microcrystalline silicon thin film solar cells with open-circuits voltage of 0.773 V and short-circuits current density of 12.28 mA/cm2. Future scope for performance improvement lies mainly in further increasing the short-circuit current.

scholarly journals Light Scattering and Current Enhancement for Microcrystalline Silicon Thin-Film Solar Cells on Aluminium-Induced Texture Glass Superstrates with Double Texture

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunfeng Yin ◽  
Nasim Sahraei ◽  
Selvaraj Venkataraj ◽  
Sonya Calnan ◽  
Sven Ring ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Optical Scattering ◽  
Thin Film Solar Cells ◽  
Surface Topology ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Wide Range

Microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) thin-film solar cells are processed on glass superstrates having both micro- and nanoscale surface textures. The microscale texture is realised at the glass surface, using the aluminium-induced texturing (AIT) method, which is an industrially feasible process enabling a wide range of surface feature sizes (i.e., 700 nm–3 μm) of the textured glass. The nanoscale texture is made by conventional acid etching of the sputter-deposited transparent conductive oxide (TCO). The influence of the resulting “double texture” on the optical scattering is investigated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) (studying the surface topology), haze measurements (studying scattering into air), and short-circuit current enhancement measurements (studying scattering into silicon). A predicted enhanced optical scattering efficiency is experimentally proven by a short-circuit current enhancementΔIscof up to 1.6 mA/cm2(7.7% relative increase) compared to solar cells fabricated on a standard superstrate, that is, planar glass covered with nanotextured TCO. Enhancing the autocorrelation length (or feature size) of the AIT superstrates might have the large potential to improve theμc-Si:H thin-film solar cell efficiency, by reducing the shunting probability of the device while maintaining a high optical scattering performance.

Optics in Thin-film Silicon Solar Cells with Integrated Lamellar Gratings

2009 ◽  
Vol 1153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Dewan ◽  
Darin Madzharov ◽  
Andrey Raykov ◽  
Dietmar Knipp
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Incident Light ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Diffracted Waves ◽  
Difference Time

AbstractLight trapping in microcrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells with integrated lamellar gratings was investigated. The influence of the grating dimensions on the short circuit current and quantum efficiency was investigated by numerical simulation of Maxwell’s equations by a Finite Difference Time Domain approach. For the red and infrared part of the optical spectrum, the grating structure leads to scattering and higher order diffraction resulting in an increased absorption of the incident light in the silicon thin-film solar cell. By studying the diffracted waves arising from lamellar gratings, simple design rules for optimal grating dimensions were derived.

scholarly journals The “Micromorph” Cell: a New Way to High-Efficiency-Low-Temperature Crystalline Silicon Thin-Film Cell Manufacturing?

1996 ◽  
Vol 452 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Keppner ◽  
P. Torres ◽  
J. Meier ◽  
R. Platz ◽  
D. Fischer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Low Temperature ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Crystalline Silicon ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Cell Manufacturing ◽  
Manufacturing Techniques

AbstractIn the past, microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) has been successfully used as active semiconductor in entirely μc-Si:H p-i-n solar cells and a new type of tandem solar cell, called the “micromorph” cell, was introduced [1]. Micromorph cells consist of an amorphous silicon top cell and a microcrystalline bottom cell. In the paper a micromorph cell with a stable efficiency of 10.7 % (confirmed by ISE Freiburg) is reported.Among sofar existing crystalline silicon-based solar cell manufacturing techniques, the application of microcrystalline silicon is a new promising way towards implementing thin-film silicon solar cells with a low temperature deposition. Microcrystalline silicon can, indeed, be deposited at temperatures as low as 220°C; hence, the way is here open to use cheap substrates as, e.g. plastic or glass. In the present paper, the development of single and tandem cells containing microcrystalline silicon is reviewed. As stated in previous publications, microcrystalline silicon technique has at present a severe drawback that has yet to be overcome: Its deposition rate for solar-grade material is about 2Å/s; in a more recent case 4.3 Å/s [2] could be obtained. In the present paper, using suitable mixtures of silane, hydrogen and argon, deposition rates of 9.4 Å/s are presented. Thereby the dominating plasma mechanism and the basic properties of resulting layers are described in detail. A first entirely microcrystalline cell deposited at 8.7 Å/s has an efficiency of 3.15%.

Recombination Lifetime in Microcrystalline Silicon Absorbers of Highly Efficient Thin-Film Solar Cells

2002 ◽  
Vol 715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Torsten Brammer ◽  
Helmut Stiebig
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Strong Dependence ◽  
Chemical Vapor ◽  
Thin Film Solar Cells ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Silicon Thin Film ◽  
Recombination Lifetime ◽  
Numerical Device

AbstractAbsorber layers of microcrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition are characterized regarding the recombination lifetime. The characterization is based on a comparison of experimentally determined solar cell characteristics with results from numerical device simulations. Evaluation of the dark reverse saturation current indicates a strong dependence of τ on the hydrogen dilution during the deposition. Close to the transition region to amorphous growth where the highest solar cell efficiencies are observed τ is maximum within the crystalline deposition regime and equals 30 ns.

scholarly journals CdTe-Based Thin Film Solar Cells: Past, Present and Future

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1684
Author(s):  
Alessandro Romeo ◽  
Elisa Artegiani
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Short Circuit Current Density ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Solar Cell Efficiency ◽  
Cell Efficiency

CdTe is a very robust and chemically stable material and for this reason its related solar cell thin film photovoltaic technology is now the only thin film technology in the first 10 top producers in the world. CdTe has an optimum band gap for the Schockley-Queisser limit and could deliver very high efficiencies as single junction device of more than 32%, with an open circuit voltage of 1 V and a short circuit current density exceeding 30 mA/cm2. CdTe solar cells were introduced at the beginning of the 70s and they have been studied and implemented particularly in the last 30 years. The strong improvement in efficiency in the last 5 years was obtained by a new redesign of the CdTe solar cell device reaching a single solar cell efficiency of 22.1% and a module efficiency of 19%. In this paper we describe the fabrication process following the history of the solar cell as it was developed in the early years up to the latest development and changes. Moreover the paper also presents future possible alternative absorbers and discusses the only apparently controversial environmental impacts of this fantastic technology.

INVESTIGATION OF THE Si:H FILMS DEPOSITED NEAR THE TRANSITION REGION FOR APPLICATION IN SOLAR CELLS

2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (27) ◽  
pp. 1739-1747 ◽  
Author(s):  
QINGSONG LEI ◽  
ZHIMENG WU ◽  
XINHUA GENG ◽  
YING ZHAO ◽  
JIANPING XI
Keyword(s):  
Thin Films ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Transition Region ◽  
Chemical Vapor ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Very High Frequency ◽  
Working Pressure ◽  
Hydrogenated Silicon ◽  
Silicon Thin Films ◽  
Narrow Region

Hydrogenated silicon thin films (Si:H) have been deposited by using very high-frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (VHF PECVD). The structural, electrical and optical properties of the films were characterized. The transition process and the effect of pressure were studied. Results suggest that a narrow region, in which the transition from microcrystalline to amorphous growth takes place, exists in the regime of silane concentration (SC). This region is influenced by the working pressure (P). At lower pressure, the transition region is shifted to higher SC. Microcrystalline silicon (μ c-Si:H ) thin films deposited near transition region was applied as i-layer to the p-i-n solar cells. An efficiency of about 5.30% was obtained.

High Haze and Low Resistive MgO/AZO Bi-layer Transparent Conducting Oxide for Thin Film Solar Cells

2011 ◽  
Vol 1327 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dong Won Kang ◽  
Jong Seok Woo ◽  
Sung Hwan Choi ◽  
Seung Yoon Lee ◽  
Heon Min. Lee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Silicon Solar Cell ◽  
Transparent Conducting Oxide ◽  
Visible Region ◽  
Xrd Analysis ◽  
Thin Film Solar Cells ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Transparent Conducting

ABSTRACTWe have propsed MgO/AZO bi-layer transparent conducting oxide (TCO) for thin film solar cells. From XRD analysis, it was observed that the full width at half maximum of AZO decreased when it was grown on MgO precursor. The Hall mobility of MgO/AZO bi-layer was 17.5cm2/Vs, whereas that of AZO was 20.8cm2/Vs. These indicated that the crystallinity of AZO decreased by employing MgO precursor. However, the haze (=total diffusive transmittance/total transmittance) characteristics of highly crystalline AZO was significantly improved by MgO precursor. The average haze in the visible region increased from 14.3 to 48.2%, and that in the NIR region increased from 6.3 to 18.9%. The reflectance of microcrystalline silicon solar cell was decreased and external quantum efficiency was significantly improved by applying MgO/AZO bi-layer TCO. The efficiency of microcrystalline silicon solar cell with MgO/AZO bi-layer front TCO was 6.66%, whereas the efficiency of one with AZO single TCO was 5.19%.

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