This report describes recent aspects of advanced inorganic materials for photovoltaics or solar cell applications. Specific materials examined will be high-efficiency silicon, gallium arsenide and related materials, and thin-film materials, particularly amorphous silicon and (polycrystalline) copper indium selenide. Some of the advanced concepts discussed include multijunction III-V (and thin-f...

A new generation of low-cost products based on thin films of photoactive materials (e.g., amorphous silicon, copper indium diselenide (CIS), cadmium telluride (CdTe), and film crystalline silicon) deposited on inexpensive substrates, increase the prospects of rapid commercialization. The PV industry has adopted a pro-active and long-term strategy to preserve the environmentally friendly nature ...

Thin-film deposition on ultra-thin substrates poses unique challenges because of the potential for a dynamic response to the film stress during deposition. While theoretical studies have investigated film stress related changes in bulk substrates, little has been done to learn how stress might evolve in a film growing on a compliant substrate. We use silicon nanomembranes (SiNMs), extremely thi...

In this paper, we discuss on light management in silicon thin film solar cells, using photonic crystals (PhC) structures. We particularly focus on photovoltaic devices including amorphous silicon absorbers patterned as 2D PhCs. Physical principles and design rules leading to the optimized configuration of the patterned cell are discussed by means of optical simulations performed on realistic th...

To improve the spatial resolution of the light-addressable potentiometric sensor (LAPS), it is necessary to reduce the thickness of the semiconductor layer, which, however, causes a problem of the mechanical strength of the sensor plate. In this study, a thin-film LAPS was fabricated with amorphous silicon (a-Si) deposited on a transparent glass substrate. The current-voltage characteristics an...

Figure 1. (a) Trap occupancy of a trapping level under non-equilibrium conditions (b) probability of occupation (c) conceptual diagram of DOS, probability of occupation, and ionized densities in the a-Si TFTs. Figure 2. Examples of ATLAS simulation results with DEFECT and SAVE TRAP.FILE statements. Introduction Amorphous silicon Thin-Film Transistors (a-Si TFTs) are widely used as the switching...

iHydrogenated amorphous silicon thin-film transistors (a-Si:H TFTs) have been widely used forthe active-matrix addressing of flat panel displays, optical scanners and sensors. Extending theapplication of the a-Si TFTs from switches to current sources, which requires continuousoperation such as for active-matrix organic light-emitting-diode (AMOLED) pixels, makesstability a c...

Articles you may be interested in A model of electrical conduction across the grain boundaries in polycrystalline-silicon thin film transistors and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors Polycrystalline silicon thin-film transistors with location-controlled crystal grains fabricated by excimer laser crystallization Appl. Improvement of the electrical performance in metal-induced lat...

Microcrystalline silicon thin films have attracted much attention in recent years in active matrix-liquid-crystal displays and photo-voltaic solar cells. This is due primarily to their superior transport over amorphous alternatives while maintaining a significantly lower manufacturing cost over conventional wafer-grown silicon. The general goal of current microcrystalline development efforts is...

We have investigated the crystallization of amorphous equiatomic NiTi thin films sandwiched between two protective silicon nitride barrier films using optical, atomic force, and transmission electron microscopy. Crystallite nucleation occurs homogeneously inside the NiTi films because small composition shifts at the interfaces between NiTi and surrounding layers suppress heterogeneous nucleatio...