Introduction to Silicon-based Thin Film Solar Cells

What are the basic principles of thin-film silicon solar cells?

5.1. General principles In thin-film silicon solar cells, one so far almost exclusively uses two-terminal tandem solar cells. These devices stack two subcells, one on top of the other as indicated in Fig. 25.

How are silicon thin films deposited in solar cells?

1. Introduction Silicon thin films for solar cells are at present predominantly deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) either from silane (SiH 4) or preferably from a mixture of silane and hydrogen. They are either amorphous or microcrystalline. They contain about 5%–15% of hydrogen atoms.

What are thin film solar cells?

Thin film solar cells are favorable because of their minimum material usage and rising efficiencies. The three major thin film solar cell technologies include amorphous silicon (α-Si), copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), and cadmium telluride (CdTe).

Who wrote the book thin-film silicon solar cells?

Proceedings of the 31st IEEE Photovoltaic Solar Energy Specialists Conference, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, 2005, pp. 1593–1596. The present chapter is partly an excerpt from the book Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells, edited by Arvind Shah and published in 2010 by the EPFL Press, Lausanne , with contributions by Horst Schade and Friedhelm Finger.

Do thin-film silicon solar cells have a strong electric field?

For all types of p–i–n- and n–i–p-type thin-film silicon solar cells, it is of paramount importance to have a strong internal electric field and to avoid substantial reduction of this field by any of the effects listed earlier.

What are the disadvantages of thin-film silicon solar cells and modules?

Conclusions Thin-film silicon solar cells and modules have at present a significant disadvantage with respect to wafer-based crystalline silicon modules and even with respect to some other thin-film modules such as CIGS modules: their conversion efficiency is quite a bit lower.