The thin-film limit is derived by a nonconventional approach and equations for transmittance, reflectance and absorptance are presented in highly versatile and accurate form. In the thin-film limit the optical properties do not depend on the absorption coefficient, thickness and refractive index individually, but only on their product. We show that this formalism is applicable to the problem of...

We report the thermal conductivity and specific heat of amorphous silicon thin films measured from 5-300 K using silicon-nitride membrane-based microcalorimeters. Above 50 K the thermal conductivity of thin-film amorphous silicon agrees with values previously reported by other authors. However, our data show no plateau, with a low T suppression of the thermal conductivity that suggests that the...

The purpose of this paper is to model the performance of thin film amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells under AM1.5G spectral conditions. In this work, a numerical model for the investigation of thin film amorphous silicon p-i-n cells has been developed. The light absorption is treated as a non-uniform, exponentially decaying function, which also allows to use spectral ensembles to be investi...

Amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon films obtained by Hot-Wire Chemical Vapor deposition have been incorporated as active layers in n-type coplanar top gate thin film transistors deposited on glass substrates covered with SiO2. Amorphous silicon devices exhibited mobility values of 1.3 cmVs, which are very high taking into account the amorphous nature of the material. Nanocrystalline transist...

A new device called “Solant” (for SOLar cell – ANTenna) is presented in this paper. It is a combination of thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells and flat printed antennas. A proton irradiation campaign has also been carried out on a series of n-i-p amorphous and p-i-n micromorph [microcrystalline (μc-Si:H) and amorphous (a-Si:H)] silicon tandem solar cells. The effect of thermal annealing on ...

We propose an approach for enhancing the absorption of thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells using periodic arrangements of resonant dielectric nanospheres deposited as a continuous film on top of a thin planar cell. We numerically demonstrate this enhancement using 3D full field finite difference time domain simulations and 3D finite element device physics simulations of a nanosphere array a...

During the last two decades, the Institute of Microtechnology (IMT) has contributed in two important fields to future thin-film silicon solar cell processing and design: (1) In 1987, IMT introduced the so-called ‘‘very high frequency glow discharge (VHF-GD)’’ technique, a method that leads to a considerable enhancement in the deposition rate of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon layers. As ...

The early stages of thin film growth from the rf glow discharge of silane-based gas mixtures have been systematically studied by structural characterizations of the silicon based multilayers. The x-ray diffraction, its rocking curve and x-ray interference of hydrogenated amorphous silicon(a-Si:H, 10 % 200 A thick)/stoichiometric silicon nitride (a-SigNq:H, 25 % 250 A) multiple layers have been ...

Our primary goal is to increase the stabilized efficiency of thin film silicon solar cells in the substrate (nip) configuration by using textured substrates and tandem structures, based on amorphous (a-Si:H) and microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H). In order to reduce costs of mass-produced thin film solar modules, special attention has been paid in developing processes compatible with plastic fo...

The increasing demand for photovoltaic devices and the associated crystalline silicon feedstock demand scenario have led in the past years to the fast growth of the thin film silicon industry. The high potential for cost reduction and the suitability for building integration have initiated both industrial and research laboratories dynamisms for amorphous silicon and micro-crystalline silicon ba...