Premium
Recent developments in amorphous silicon‐based solar cells
Author(s) -
Beneking C.,
Rech B.,
Fölsch J.,
Wagner H.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
physica status solidi (b)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.51
H-Index - 109
eISSN - 1521-3951
pISSN - 0370-1972
DOI - 10.1002/pssb.2221940106
Subject(s) - amorphous silicon , materials science , silicon , substrate (aquarium) , optoelectronics , amorphous solid , band gap , crystalline silicon , degradation (telecommunications) , nanotechnology , electronic engineering , chemistry , crystallography , engineering , oceanography , geology
Two examples of recent advances in the field of thin‐film, amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a‐Si:H) pin solar cells are described: the improved understanding and control of the p/i interface, and the improvement of wide‐bandgap a‐Si: H material deposited at low substrate temperature as absorber layer for cells with high stabilized open‐circuit voltage. Stacked a‐Si: H/a‐Si: H cells incorporating these concepts exhibit less than 10% (relative) efficiency degradation and show stabilized efficiencies as high as 9 to 10% (modules 8 to 9%). The use of low‐gap a‐Si:H and its alloys like a‐SiGe:H as bottom cell absorber materials in multi‐bandgap stacked cells offers additional possibilities. The combination of a‐Si: H based top cells with thin‐film crystalline silicon‐based bottom cells appears as a promising new trend. It offers the perspective to pass significantly beyond the present landmark of 10% module efficiency reached by the technology utilizing exclusively amorphous siliconbased absorber layers, while keeping its advantages of potentially low‐cost production.