The multilayer cell has been specifically designed with the aim to obtain high solar cell efficiency using low quality, thin film, polycrystalline silicon material. The structure consists of multiple pand n-type silicon layers. This paper examines the tolerance of the cell design to a range of metallic impurities and grain boundaries using computer simulations. The modelled results indicate tha...

The paper gives an overview over recent results and future potentials of the cornbined ainorphous silicon/microcrys~alline silicon "micromorph" tandem cell technology. The reported results include replacement of boron-microdoping compensation by employment of gas-purification to obtain mid-gap iriicrocrystailine silicon, leading to tne fabrication of a 3.6 ~m thick microcrystalline silicon p-i-...

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The majority of solar cells produced today are made with crystalline silicon wafers, which are typically manufactured by growing a large piece of silicon and then sawing it into ~200 pm wafers, a process which converts one-half of the high-purity silicon into waste sawdust. To bypass the sawing process, a new method for making high-quality multicrystalline wafers without sawing is under develop...

The traditional approach to harnessing the impurity-photovoltaic effect to improve solar cell performance is plagued by additional recombination caused by the impurity centres. This extra recombination channel is usually deemed to outweigh the benefits of additional generation of electron–hole pairs via sub-band-gap absorption through the impurity levels. Here we consider an alternative approac...

One of major approaches to cheaper solar cells is reducing the amount of semiconductor material used for their fabrication and making cells thinner. To compensate for lower light absorption such physically thin devices have to incorporate light-trapping which increases their optical thickness. Light scattering by textured surfaces is a common technique but it cannot be universally applied to al...

In this paper, we investigate tandem amorphous/microcrystalline silicon solar cells with asymmetric intermediate reflectors grown in the n–i–p substrate configuration. We compare different types of substrates with respect to their light-trapping properties as well as their influence on the growth of single-junction microcrystalline cells. Our most promising back reflector combines a textured zi...

The conversion process of solar radiation into electricity occurs in an open environment, under various climatic factors and temperature variations. Therefore, the effectiveness of silicon solar cells (SC) under such conditions can be said, bearing in mind the cheapness of the technology for the production of solar cells, the use of cheap materials, durability, stability and stability of their ...