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Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology for Photovoltaics (Phys. Status Solidi A 1∕2015)
Author(s) -
Bermudez Veronica,
Fantechi Sophia,
Fillon Bertrand,
PérezRodríguez Alejandro,
Ulyashin Alexander G.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201570401
Subject(s) - photovoltaics , nanotechnology , nanorod , materials science , solar cell , photovoltaic system , engineering physics , common emitter , silicon , optoelectronics , engineering , electrical engineering
This special issue gathers a selection of papers in Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology for Photovoltaics (PV) that were presented at the 2 nd EU PV Clusters Workshop and General Assembly “ Progress in Photovoltaics and Nanotechnology: from FP7 to Horizon 2020 ”, held at the University of Barcelona (Spain) in November 2013 (cf. the Preface on pp. 10–12 ). A relevant contribution from the European Project SCALENANO is the development of new Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 solar cell architectures incorporating ZnO nanorod arrays that are reviewed by Ohm et al. (pp. 76–87), following the processes schematically shown in the cover image. This paper describes new technological insights that are given for the synthesis of devices using electrodeposited ZnO nanorods as either front or back nanostructured contacts, exploring new promising concepts to maximize photonconversion by optical and electrical enhancement. These device architectures are compatible with the use of vacuum‐free processes with a high potential for reduction of production costs, as spray pyrolysis based processes that are described in the paper by Espíndola‐Rodríguez et al. (pp. 126–134). In the field of Si based technologies, the application of doped colloidal silicon nanocrystals sandwiched between hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers as emitters in silicon heterojunction solar cells may turn out to be an interesting system to exploit quantum confinement effects in solar cells or for the processing of low‐cost and potentially printable emitter layers, as described in the Feature Article by Leendertz et al. (pp. 156–161) from the European project nanoPV. The cross‐sectional TEM micrograph on the cover shows a crystalline silicon wafer covered with an amorphous layer and n‐type Si‐nanocrystals. Areas with regular lattice structure provide proof for the existence of nanocrystals inside the amorphous layer. In this paper, the authors discuss the technological challenges of such an approach and present first solar cells that reach conversion efficiencies of 13.7%.