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We report on the fabrication and characterization of both flat and patterned c-Si solar cells on glass. We use epitaxial layers grown by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at low temperature (T<200°C), and anodic bonding on glass substrate. Inverted nanopyramids are fabricated by nanoimprint lithography and wet etching in alkaline solution. With 3µm-thick c-Si layers, the performances achieved...
A high cell performance is one of the key drivers to reduce the levelized cost of electricity for PV. Nevertheless, the production costs of a solar cell technology have to be low, to allow a market entry. A both sides-contacted solar cell can potentially fulfill both requirements. In this work we present the latest results of our DOE FPACE project: A both sides-contacted n-type solar cell with a passivated...
The brightness, large absorption cross-section and flexibility of colloidal nanocrystal quantum-dots (QDs) make these materials promising candidates for light harvesting applications. The difficulty of efficiently extracting photogenerated carriers from the QDs however drastically limits the power conversion efficiency of NQD solar cells. A possible way to circumvent these issues is to engineer hybrid...
A type of integrated photovoltaic system that can improve the performance of ultrathin silicon solar cells is demonstrated by synergistically exploiting light trapping nanostructures and plasmonically enhanced spectral upconversion. Ultrathin (∼8 µm) nanostructured silicon solar cells are embedded in a thin polymeric medium containing NaYF4:Yb3+,Er3+ upconversion nanocrystals coated on a nanostructured...
Silicon-based tandem solar cells are desirable as a high efficiency, economically viable approach to one sun or low concentration photovoltaics. We present an approach to wafer bonded III–V/Si solar cells using amorphous indium zinc oxide (IZO) as an interlayer. We investigate the impact of a heavily doped III–V contact layer on the electrical and optical properties of bonded test samples, including...
SOI & CMOS technologies have been compared many times in term of efficiencies and performances with regards to different types of applications. Nowadays, the ASIC combining optical sensor with its readout and signal processing electronics on the same chip becomes more and more a target for applications mainly in the bio and the automotive domain. Many publications have addressed the design issues...
Construction and method of formation of silicon solar cells with vertical p-n junction has been presented. The solar cell should contain a groove within the active light-absorbing area, in order to reduce the refection of solar radiation. Multiplied module consists of the four elements with different topology. This construction could be transparent in the long-wavelength part of the spectrum beyond...
By a metal catalytic chemical etching method we obtained “black silicon” with very high absorption efficiency from ultraviolet to near infrared range. The characteristic of the black silicon as absorber for photo-thermal-electricity conversion was investigated.
Achieving high optical absorption with crystalline silicon absorber layers which are only a few micrometers thick remains a challenge. Periodic nanostructures can be used for this purpose but need to be optimised in order to achieve the best light trapping properties. In this work we theoretically investigate and quantify the impact of breaking the symmetry on the light trapping properties of periodic...
In the present work, we have irradiated p-type CZ-silicon at two different neutron fluences, 1.98 ×1018 and 3.96 ×1018 n/cm2. The optical properties and irradiation damage have been investigated using Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV-VIS spectrophotometer technique at room temperature. The results show that the density of the vacancy-oxygen complex VO center (830 cm−1) increases...
With the help of the strong nonlinear optical response in silicon nanophotonic wire waveguides complex sources and devices can be integrated on a chip. We demonstrate mid-infrared wavelength translators and frequency combs Furthermore, we open up the possibility for the integration of nonlinear optical functions at telecom wavelengths by exploiting more exotic nonlinear interactions in silicon waveguides...
Light management in the Si bottom cell of a GaAs/Si tandem system is crucial due to the bandgap mismatch of the two materials, which results in a low current of the bottom cell. To evaluate the light coupling and light trapping, we developed an optical model to simulate the light absorption in the silicon bottom cell. This optical model is an extension of Basore's analytical model. By comparing the...
The use of fire-fighting foams for disrupting the electrical output of a solar array has been evaluated. A diffusion model was employed to calculate the light transmitted through foam as a function of its physical properties (thickness, density, and mean bubble diameter). From the transmitted light spectrum, the power generated from a c-Si solar cell was simulated. The individual cell results were...
A novel tunnel recombination junction (TRJ) consisted of n type hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon oxide (n-µc-SiOx:H) layer and p type hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon oxide (p-nc-SiOx:H) layer was proposed in hydrogenated amorphous silicon/microcrystalline silicon (a-Si:H/µc-Si:H) tandem solar cell. The absence of n-µc-Si:H compared to conventional n-µc-SiOx:H/n-µc-Si:H/p-nc-SiOx:H TRJ reduced...
We demonstrate a universally applicable 3D-printed external light trap for solar cells. We placed a macroscopic external light trap made of smoothened, silver coated plastic at the sun-facing surface of different types of solar cells. The trap consists of a reflective parabolic concentrator on top of a reflective cage. The trap directs the light that is reflected upwards by the solar cell back towards...
A graded buffer layer is needed in order to grow III–V/SiGe on silicon substrate because of the lattice mismatch. In this work, optical absorption in the graded buffer layer is quantified by measuring the transmittances. We demonstrate a 7 µm graded buffer layer with Ge composition from 0% to 82% is equivalent to a 2 µm SiGe film with 82% Ge composition in terms of optical absorption. A SiGe solar...
The application of correcting small temperature non-uniformity on Silicon wafers using local irradiation with spatially scanning laser beams was analyzed. The objective of the study was to understand the specifications of such a laser beam to elevate the temperature of a wafer locally by 1 to 5°C. A detailed analytical model has been developed for predicting power level, exposure time, scanning speed,...
The charge collection probability is one of the most important parameters of a solar cell. We derived two kinds of special functions to fit the external quantum efficiency and use then to reconstruct the charge collection probability. The simulation results of gallium arsenide and silicon solar cells are put into comparison.
A GeSn metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector is fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide by rapid melt growth method. The Sn concentration of the GeSn photodetector is 2 % and shows a larger photo-responsivity by comparing with a pure Ge photodetector at long wavelength. The dark current is 3.7e-7 A at 5.4 V and the operation speed can be as high as 6.2 GHz.
All silicon rich silicon carbide based photovoltaic solar cells (PVSCs) are demonstrated by using the PECVD. By using the [CH4]/[CH4+SiH4] fluence ratio of 50%, the i-SixC1−x layer exhibits the C/Si composition ratio of 0.503, which contributes to an additional absorbance at visible light region with the highest absorption coefficient of 2×105 cm−1. The open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current...
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