The development of mc-Si:H technology and the introduction of intrinsic Ži mc-Si:H as photovotaically active material is retraced. Special emphasis is laid on the use of very high frequency glow discharge as a particularly propitious deposition method for mc-Si:H. Thereby, the use of a gas purifier to reduce oxygen content and obtain intrinsic layers with ‘midgap’ character is described. Recen...

Abstract Characterizing subcells in two-terminal multi-junction (M-J) solar cells is challenging due to the lack of direct electrical access. This work presents a novel contactless spectral characterization technique for analysing individual subcells. The involves probing terahertz (THz) radiation generated by femtosecond laser pulse excitation and varying exciting wavelength selectively absorb...

Organic solar cells (OSCs) have shown great promise as low-cost photovoltaic devices for solar energy conversion over the past decade. Interfacial engineering provides a powerful strategy to enhance efficiency and stability of OSCs. With the rapid advances of interface layer materials and active layer materials, power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) of both single-junction and tandem OSCs have e...

This work presents a new type of transparent conductive adhesive and its electrical optical properties with regards to an application in III–V on Silicon tandem solar cells. The developed is based doped ZnO deposited by spray coating. interconnection the two sub-cells identified as one major challenges due reflectance at bond possible approaches reduce are investigated simulations. Regarding in...

To unlock the full potential of perovskite–silicon tandem solar cells with >30% efficiency at presumably low cost, transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) and metal grid front side need to be adapted compared classical silicon heterojunction (SHJ) cells. By means optical electrical modelling, we consider main aspects optimize electrode for case, where in contrast single junction devices, there are...

We have investigated, by means of numerical simulation, the possible nature of the recombination heterointerface in the monolithic CGS (top)/CIGS (bottom) tandem solar cell. The results show that current transport by tunnelling might be of less importance. On the other hand, a good recombination junction can be achieved by a formation of a semi–metal at the back contact. It is proposed that a t...

Semiconductor nanowires are a promising candidate for next-generation solar cells. However, the optical response of nanowires is, due to diffraction effects, complicated to optimize. Here, we optimize through optical modeling the absorption in a dual-junction nanowire-array solar cell in terms of the Shockley-Quessier detailed balance efficiency limit. We identify efficiency maxima that origina...