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The consequences of implementing a Hot Wire Chemical Vapor Deposition (HWCVD) chamber into an existing in-line or roll-to-roll reactor are described. The hardware and operation of the HWCVD production reactor is compared to that of existing roll-to-roll reactors based on Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition. The most important consequences are the technical consequences and the economic consequences, which are both discussed. The technical consequences are adaptations needed to the hardware and to the processing sequences due to the different interaction of the HWCVD process with the substrate and already deposited layers. The economic consequences are the reduced investments in radio frequency (RF) supplies and RF components. This is partially offset by investments that have to be made in higher capacity pumping systems. The most mature applications of HWCVD are moisture barrier coatings for thin film flexible devices such as Organic Light Emitting Diodes and Organic Photovoltaics, and passivation layers for multicrystalline Si solar cells, high mobility field effect transistors, and silicon heterojunction cells (also known as heterojunction cells with intrinsic thin film layers). Another example is the use of Si in thin film photovoltaics. The cost perspective per unit of thin film photovoltaic product using HWCVD is estimated at 0.07€/Wp for the Si thin film component.

Quantumdots (QDs) are considered a possible solution to overcome the Shockley–Queisser efficiency limit of 31% for single junction solar cells by efficiently absorbing above band gap energy photons through Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) or sub band gap energy photons using an Intermediate Band Solar Cell structure (IBSC). For the latter absorption process, we consider tin sulphide (SnS) as a promising candidate, having several advantages compared to the other nanoparticles studied extensively so far, such as CdS, CdSe, PbS, and PbSe; namely it is non-toxic and environmentally benign and thus will be most suitable in consumer products such as solar panels. In this work we propose a new colloidal synthesis method for SnS QDs. We have obtained mono-dispersive SnS and SnS/In2S3 core–shell nanoparticles with a size of ∼4 nm. Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) elemental analysis revealed that the particles are indeed SnS and not SnS2. Furthermore, the conductive nature of the nanoparticles has been inferred by conductivitymapping using a relatively new contactless technique, Torsional Resonance Tunneling AFM (TR-TUNA). These results confirm that the SnS QDs possess all the requirements to be applied as photoactive layers in photovoltaic devices.

To be able to use the simple technique of optical emission spectroscopy (OES) for the prediction of the transition of growth from a-Si to nc-Si via the Hα/Si⁎ emission ratio, a regime-dependent correction factor is required to relate the measured Hα/Si⁎ emission ratio to the true flux (to the substrate) ratio of atomic hydrogen to deposited silicon radicals. Through an in-depth study in a very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process, we obtained that the flux ratio of atomic hydrogen and deposited silicon radicals to the growing surface,ΓH/ΓSi, is related to the emission ratio of Hα and Si⁎, IradHα/IradSi*, by the relation, R rad I rad H α I rad Si * / Γ H Γ Si = a ( p d ) 2 / k T gas + b , where the parameters p (pressure), d (inter-electrode distance) and Tgas (gas temperature) are experimentally obtained quantities and Rrad is the ratio of the rate coefficients for radiation of Si⁎ and Hα. We obtained the calibration parameters a and b to be 1.9·10− 21 ± 2·10− 22 Pa m− 1 and 5.5 ± 1.9 respectively which is valid in a broad range of power and pressure settings. With these parameters, it is easy to estimate the flux ratio of atomic hydrogen and silicon species at any deposition condition using the OES data and this will allow accurate prediction of the phase transition. According to simulations in the linear low-pressure regime, the amorphous to nanocrystalline phase transformation occurs at the flux ratio ΓH/ΓSi = 12, which translates, using the factors a and b, to the required emission ratio.

We report on the development of p-type μc-SiOx:H material, in particular the relationship between the deposition parameters and the material properties like band gap, electrical conductivity, and crystalline volume fraction. The material was deposited from gas mixtures of silane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen by RF-PECVD. The gas flows were varied systematically to evaluate their influence on the material properties. An increase of the oxygen content in the material disturbs the crystalline growth. This can be counteracted by appropriate hydrogen dilutions. Materials with a combination of reasonably high conductivity of 4 × 10− 6 S/cm at a high optical band gap E04 of 2.56 eV and a refractive index of 1.95 are obtained. Applied in single junction μc-Si:H pin solar cells the improved properties of the μc-SiOx:H p-layers are reflected in higher quantum efficiency in the short wavelength range by 10% compare to cells without adding CO2 during p-layer deposition.

Upconversion of subbandgap light of thin film single junction amorphous silicon solar cells may enhance their performance in the near infrared (NIR). In this paper we report on the application of the NIR–vis upconverter β-NaYF 4 :Yb 3+ (18%) Er 3+ (2%) at the back of an amorphous silicon solar cell in combination with a white back reflector and its response to infrared irradiation. Current–voltage measurements and spectral response measurements were done on experimental solar cells. An enhancement of 10 μA/cm 2 was measured under illumination with a 980 nm diode laser (10 mW). A part of this was due to defect absorption in localized states of the amorphous silicon.

By resistively heating tungsten filaments in a constant air flow under a reduced pressure, nanogranular amorphous WO3 thin films are deposited on glassy carbon substrates. The substrate surface temperature is monitored by a thermocouple. For deposition times of 15 min and longer, the films show crystallization into a monoclinic nanocrystalline WO3 phase due to thermal radiation from the filaments. The thin films thus deposited consist of very small grains with sizes of 8-16nm for a film deposited in 5 min, and to sizes of 20-42nm for a film deposited in 60 min. By heating the bottom of the substrate to 950°C, the grains sinter to nanorods with diameters of 146±26nm with lengths of up to 750 nm. The morphology, the film thickness, the grain and the nanorod sizes of the depositions are characterized by high-resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), and the atomic species present in the films by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS). The number of atoms in the films is determined by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). The results are combined with measurements of the physical thicknesses, and thus the mass densities of the deposited films are obtained. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy are used to characterize the deposited films crystallographically and chemically, respectively

We have, for the first time, designed and fabricated hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells to be used in conjunction with Luminescent Solar Concentrators (LSCs). LSCs are planar plastic sheets doped with organic dyes that absorb solar illumination and down shift the energy to narrowband luminescence which is collected by solar cells attached to the sheet edge. We fabricated an LSC module with two bonded solar cells and performed characterisation with the cells connected in series and parallel configurations. We find that the LSC module has an optical collection efficiency of 9.5% and an optimum power conversion efficiency of approaching 1% when the cells are in a parallel connection.

Measured and modelled JV characteristics of crystalline silicon cells below one sun intensity have been investigated. First, the JV characteristics were measured between 3 and 1000 W/m2 at 6 light levels for 41 industrially produced mono- and multi-crystalline cells from 8 manufacturers, and at 29 intensity levels for a single multi-crystalline silicon between 0.01 and 1000 W/m2. Based on this experimental data, the accuracy of the following four modelling approaches was evaluated: (1) empirical fill factor expressions, (2) a purely empirical function, (3) the one-diode model and (4) the two-diode model. Results show that the fill factor expressions and the empirical function fail at low light intensities, but a new empirical equation that gives accurate fits could be derived. The accuracy of both diode models are very high. However, the accuracy depends considerably on the used diode model parameter sets. While comparing different methods to determine diode model parameter sets, the two-diode model is found to be preferred in principle: particularly its capability in accurately modelling VOC and efficiency with one and the same parameter set makes the two-diode model superior. The simulated energy yields of the 41 commercial cells as a function of irradiance intensity suggest unbiased shunt resistances larger than about 10 kΩ cm2 may help to avoid low energy yields of cells used under predominantly low light intensities. Such cells with diode currents not larger than about 10−9 A/cm2 are excellent candidates for Product Integrated PV (PIPV) appliances.

Silicon nanoparticles are synthesized by very high frequency Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (vhf-PECVD) in the gas phase. Pulsed plasmas are used to obtain particles with a narrow size distribution. The role of plasma OFF times is studied to tailor the size of the silicon nanoparticles. Various plasma OFF times are chosen, both longer- and shorter -than the residence time of the gases in the discharge. Time resolved optical emission spectroscopy (TROES) studies provide additional information about the growth precursor dynamics during plasma modulation. The size and the size distribution studies of the particles are done with transmission electron microscopy (TEM). These studies reveal that a plasma OFF time longer than the residence time is favorable for the formation of quantum sized silicon particles.

Silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJ) with thin intrinsic layers are well known for their high efficiencies. A promising way to further enhance their excellent characteristics is to enable more light to enter the crystalline silicon (c-Si) absorber of the cell while maintaining a simple cell configuration. Our approach is to replace the amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) emitter layer with a more transparent nanocrystalline silicon oxide (nc-SiOx:H) layer. In this work, we focus on optimizing the p-type nc-SiOx:H material properties, grown by radio frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (rf PECVD), on an amorphous silicon layer.20 nm thick nanocrystalline layers were successfully grown on a 5 nm a-Si:H layer. The effect of different ratios of trimethylboron to silane gas flow rates on the material properties were investigated, yielding an optimized material with a conductivity in the lateral direction of 7.9×10-4 S/cm combined with a band gap of E04 = 2.33 eV. Despite its larger thickness as compared to a conventional window a-Si:H p-layer, the novel layer stack of a-Si:H(i)/nc-SiOx:H(p) shows significantly enhanced transmission compared to the stack with a conventional a-Si:H(p) emitter. Altogether, the chosen material exhibits promising characteristics for implementation in SHJ solar cells.

Full spectrum absorption combined with effective generation and collection of charge carriers is a prerequisite for attaining high efficiency solar cells. Two examples of spectral conversion are treated in this chapter, i.e., up-conversion and down-shifting. Up-conversion is applied to thin film silicon solar cells and efficiency improvements using lanthanides as up-converter material under monochromatic as well as broadband light are presented. Down-shifting is demonstrated in luminescent solar concentrators, and material issues hampering efficiency improvements are discussed, in particular re-absorption of light emitted by luminescent species. A new class of semiconductor hetero-nanocrystals is shown to be an excellent candidate for surpassing the 10% luminescent solar concentrator efficiency barrier.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are low cost photovoltaic devices, which reduce the amount of necessary semiconductor material per unit area of a photovoltaic solar energy converter by means of concentration. The device is comprised of a thin plastic plate in which luminescent species (fluorophores) have been incorporated. The fluorophores absorb the solar light and radiatively re-emit a part of the energy. Total internal reflection traps most of the emitted light inside the plate and wave-guides it to a narrow side facet with a solar cell attached, where conversion into electricity occurs. The eficiency of such devices is as yet rather low, due to several loss mechanisms, of which self-absorption is of high importance. Combined ray-tracing and Monte-Carlo simulations is a widely used tool for eficiency estimations of LSC-devices prior to manufacturing. We have applied this method to a model experiment, in which we analysed the impact of self-absorption onto LSC- eficiency of fluorophores with different absorption/emission-spectral overlap (Stokes-shift): several organic dyes and semiconductor quantum dots (single compound and core/shell of type-II). These results are compared with the ones obtained experimentally demonstrating a good agreement. The validated model is used to investigate systematically the influence of spectral separation and luminescence quantum eficiency on the intensity loss in consequence of increased self-absorption. The results are used to adopt a quantity called the self-absorption cross-section and establish it as reliable criterion for self-absorption properties of materials that can be obtained from fundamental data and has a more universal scope of application, than the currently used Stokes-shift.

The synthesis of metallic tungsten nanostructures and highly nanostructured thin films is presented. Crystalline tungsten oxide nanostructures are deposited on glassy carbon substrates kept at 700¿±¿100¿°C by oxidizing resistively heated tungsten filaments in an air flow under subatmospheric pressures. The internal morphology of the deposited tungsten oxide can be reproducibly controlled by the air pressure. After deposition, the tungsten oxides have been fully reduced to metallic tungsten by atomic hydrogen at a temperature of about 730¿°C. Polycrystalline metallic tungsten nanofibers, nanocrystallites, closed crystallite films, and nanogranular films are thus obtained in a single procedure involving deposition and subsequent reduction, at relatively low temperatures.

Thin-film silicon technology has changed our society, owing to the rapid advance of its two major application fields in communication (thin-film displays) and sustainable energy (thin-film solar cells). Throughout its development, advances in these application fields have always benefitted each other. In the 1980s, display technology benefitted from the know-how on plasma deposition and equipment intended for solar cells. In the 2000s, thin-film solar technology benefitted from the scaled-up versions of plasma deposition equipment, and presently Gen5 or Gen5.5 is the most commonly used size for thin-film solar modules. Scaling has always been the major cost driver for displays. For solar cells, the cost per installed watt is another important factor, and therefore primary attention for sustained growth in photovoltaics should be given to cell efficiency.

We present the self-organization of isolated monodisperse nickel oxide (NiO1+γ) nanoparticles on surfaces of arbitrary area sizes. Ni films deposited on titanium oxynitride support films are annealed in a nitrogen/air environment at atmospheric pressure for various annealing times. After the annealing treatments, randomly distributed spatially isolated NiO1+γ nanoparticles that are anchored to the support film are observed with a site-density of 11 ± 1 μm−2 and with dimensions of 16 ± 2 nm in height and 82 ± 10 nm in diameter. The anchored nanoparticles, once formed, are immobile during further annealing, even for annealing times of 40 min or annealing temperatures of 800 °C, making the nanoparticle formation a well-controlled process that yields templates suitable for further processing at elevated temperatures. We demonstrate the utilization of these NiO1+γ nanoparticle templates as nucleation sites for carbon nanotubes at temperatures of around 680 °C.

High quality non porous silicon nitride layers were deposited by hot wire chemical vapour deposition at substrate temperatures lower than 110 degrees C. The layer properties were investigated using FTIR, reflection/transmission measurements and 1:6 buffered HF etching rate. A Si-H peak position of 2180 cm(-1) in the Fourier transform infrared absorption spectrum indicates a N/Si ratio around 1.2. Together with a refractive index of 1.97 at a wavelength of 632 nm and an extinction coefficient of 0.002 at 400 nm, this suggests that a transparent high density silicon nitride material has been made below 110 degrees C, which is compatible with polymer films and is expected to have a high impermeability. To confirm the compatibility with polymer films a silicon nitride layer was deposited on poly(glycidyl methacrylate) made by initiated chemical vapour deposition, resulting in a highly transparent double layer.

Nanophotonic structures have attracted attention for light trapping in solar cells with the potential to manage and direct light absorption on the nanoscale. While both randomly textured and nanophotonic structures have been investigated, the relationship between photocurrent and the spatial correlations of random or designed surfaces has been unclear. Here we systematically design pseudorandom arrays of nanostructures based on their power spectral density, and correlate the spatial frequencies with measured and simulated photocurrent. The integrated cell design consists of a patterned plasmonic back reflector and a nanostructured semiconductor top interface, which gives broadband and isotropic photocurrent enhancement.

In this paper, we present a three-dimensional nanorod solar cell design. As the backbone of the nanorod device, density-controlled zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were synthesized by a simple aqueous solution growth technique at 80 °C on ZnO thin film pre-coated glass substrate. The as-prepared ZnO nanorods were coated by an amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H) light absorber layer to form a nanorod solar cell. The light management, current–voltage characteristics and corresponding external quantum efficiency of the solar cells were investigated. An energy conversion efficiency of 3.9% was achieved for the nanorod solar cells with an a-Si:H absorber layer thickness of 75 nm, which is significantly higher than the 2.6% and the 3.0% obtained for cells with the same a-Si:H absorber layer thickness on planar ZnO and on textured SnO2:F counterparts, respectively. A short-circuit current density of 11.6 mA/cm2 and correspondingly, a broad external quantum efficiency profile were achieved for the nanorod device. An absorbed light fraction higher than 80% in the wavelength range of 375–675 nm was also demonstrated for the nanorod solar cells, including a peak value of ~ 90% at 520–530 nm.

We report the growth conditions of nanostructured tungsten oxide (WO 3− x ) thin films using hot-wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD). Two tungsten filaments were resistively heated to various temperatures and exposed to an air flow at various subatmospheric pressures. The oxygen partial pressure was varied from 6.0 × 10 −6 to 1.0 mbar and the current through the filaments was varied from 4.0 to 9.0 A, which constitutes a filament temperature of 1390–2340 °C in vacuum. It is observed that the deposition rate of the films is predominantly determined by the oxygen partial pressure; it changes from about 1 to about 36,000 nm min −1 in the investigated range. Regardless of the oxygen partial pressure and filament temperature used, thin films with a nanogranular morphology are obtained, provided that the depositions last for 30 min or shorter. The films consist either of amorphous or partially crystallized WO 3− x with high averaged transparencies of over 70% and an indirect optical band gap of 3.3 ± 0.1 eV. A prolonged deposition time entails an extended exposure of the films to thermal radiation from the filaments, which causes crystallization to monoclinic WO 3 with diffraction maxima due to the (0 0 2), (2 0 0) and (0 2 0) crystallographic planes, furthermore the nanograins sinter and the films exhibit a cone-shaped growth. By simultaneously influencing the surface mobility, by heating the substrates to T surface = 700 ± 100 °C, and the deposition rate, a very good control of the morphology of the deposited films is obtained. Nanowire films, nanocrystallite films and closed crystallite films were thus deposited. These differently nanostructured c-WO 3 films all possess an indirect optical band gap of 2.5 ± 0.1 eV.

Quantum dots are proposed as luminescent species in luminescent solar concentrators in combination with thin film silicon solar cells. As both tuning absorption and emission properties of quantum dots is possible by adapting process conditions, as well as tuning the band gap of thin film silicon solar cells, an optimum combination is expected to exist for which the conversion efficiency of the whole device is maximum. As a first step we have employed ray-tracing modeling to determine the efficiency of a luminescent concentrator using several quantum dots and heteronanocrystals with varying Stokes’ shift and absorption cross sections. A maximum efficiency of 5.9% is found for so-called Type II heteronanocrystals.

The behavior of the electrical conductivity in hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μ c-Si:H) that is frequently observed is explained by considering the statistical shift in the chemical potential as a function of the crystalline fraction (Xc), the dangling bond density (N db), and the doping density (Nd). Our model shows that temperature dependent dc conductivity measurements above room temperature can be very well explained by (unintentional) micro doping of μ c-Si:H. It is shown that the statistical shift in the chemical potential (μ) is influenced mostly by the ratio between Nd and Ndb. It is concluded that the anomalous dependence of the apparent activation energy (Ea) and the apparent exponential prefactor (σ0) on Xc can be explained by behavior of μ, that can be induced by a change in this ratio between Nd and Ndb. We used an effective medium approximation for the electron density of states (DOS) of μc-Si:H. The DOS is calculated as a weighted sum of the DOS of c-Si and the DOS of a-Si:H, parameterized by Xc, Ndb, and Nd. The conductivity is deduced assuming a single dominant conduction path above the conduction edge of a-Si:H

The measurement of the spectrally resolved collection efficiency is of great importance in solar cell characterization. Under standard conditions the bias light is a solar simulator or a light source with a similar broadband irradiation spectrum. When a colored blue or red bias light is used instead, an enhanced collection efficiency effect, in the literature known as the photogating effect, can be observed under certain conditions. While most of the published reports on such effect were on solar cells with amorphous silicon based absorber layers, we have shown that the enhanced collection efficiency could be also present in thin film silicon solar cells where hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) is used as the absorber layer. In this article we present detailed experimental results and simulations aiming at a better understanding of this phenomenon. We show that the collection efficiency is strongly dependent on the intensity of bias light and the intensity of the monochromatic light. These experimental results are consistent with the computer predictions made by our code. We also show that the photogating effect is greatly enhanced when nanocrystalline silicon cells are built with an improperly doped p-layer or with a defective p/i interface region due to the reduced internal electric field present in such cells. The existence of this effect further proves that carrier transport in a nc-Si:H solar cell with an i-layer made close to the phase transition regime is influenced to a large extent by drift transport. The study of this effect is proposed as an alternative approach to gain a deeper understanding about the carrier transport scenarios in thin film solar cells, especially nanocrystalline silicon solar cells

This paper explores the possibility of producing amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon using very high frequency PECVD at a low substrate temperature of 123 °C at high deposition rate of 0.4-0.7 nm/s. The quality of these amorphous layers remains similar to that obtained in layers deposited at low deposition rate of 0.1 nm/s. The amorphous-to-nanocrystalline transition is sensitive to deposition chamber history. The microstructure parameter of the best nanocrystalline layers amounts to 0.4

The possibility to tune chemical and physical properties in nanosized materials has a strong impact on a variety of technologies, including photovoltaics. One of the prominent research areas of nanomaterials for photovoltaics involves spectral conversion. Modification of the spectrum requires down- and/or upconversion or downshifting of the spectrum, meaning that the energy of photons is modified to either lower (down) or higher (up) energy. Nanostructures such as quantum dots, luminescent dye molecules, and lanthanide-doped glasses are capable of absorbing photons at a certain wavelength and emitting photons at a different (shorter or longer) wavelength. We will discuss upconversion by lanthanide compounds in various host materials and will further demonstrate upconversion to work for thin-film silicon solar cells.

In this work the effects of plasmonics, nano-focusing, and orthogonalization of carrier and photon pathways are simultaneously explored by measuring the photocurrents in an elongated nano-scale solar cell with a silver nanoneedle inside. The silver nanoneedles formed the support of a conformally grown hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) n-i-p junction around it. A spherical morphology of the solar cell functions as a nano-lens, focusing incoming light directly on the silver nanoneedle. We found that plasmonics, geometric optics, and Fresnel reflections affect the nanostructured solar cell performance, depending strongly on light incidence angle and polarization. This provides valuable insight in solar cell processes in which novel concepts such as plasmonics, elongated nanostructures, and nano-lenses are used.

We deposited a silicon nitride/polymer hybrid multilayer moisture barrier for flexible electronics in a hot wire chemical vapor deposition process, entirely below 100 °C. We were able to reach a water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) as low as 5 × 10 − 6 g/m 2 /day at a temperature of 60 °C and a relative humidity of 90% for a simple three-layer structure consisting of two low-temperature silicon nitride (SiN x ) layers and a polymer layer in between. This WVTR is low enough for organic and polymer devices. In a second experiment it is investigated how the yield of our samples increases with the number of SiN x layers, while keeping the total SiN x thickness constant. Cross sectional scanning electron microscopy images of degraded samples reveal a high structural robustness of our multilayers.

Plasmonic nanostructures have been recently investigated as a possible way to improve absorption of light in solar cells. The strong interaction of small metal nanostructures with light allows control over the propagation of light at the nanoscale and thus the design of ultrathin solar cells in which light is trapped in the active layer and efficiently absorbed. In this paper we review some of our recent work in the field of plasmonics for improved solar cells. We have investigated two possible ways of integrating metal nanoparticles in a solar cell. First, a layer of Ag nanoparticles that improves the standard antireflection coating used for crystalline and amorphous silicon solar cells has been designed and fabricated. Second, regular and random arrays of metal nanostructures have been designed to couple light in waveguide modes of thin semiconductor layers. Using a large-scale, relative inexpensive nano-imprint technique, we have designed a back-contact light trapping surface for a-Si:H solar cells which show enhanced efficiency over standard randomly textured cells.

In this paper, torsional resonance tunneling mode atomic force microscopy is used to study the conductivity of nanoparticles. SnS nanoparticles capped with trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) and with In2S3 shell are analyzed. This contactless technique allows carrying out measurements on nanoparticles without destroying them and to obtain simultaneously topography and conductivity maps. This made it possible to achieve complete characterization of individual particles in a single measurement. The results demonstrate that the particles have conductive properties. The results have also showed that the TOPO capping layer may hinder tunneling currents, therefore should be avoided when performing these measurements.

Crystalline silicon surface passivation by amorphous silicon deposited by three different chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techniques at low (T ∼ 130 °C) temperatures is compared. For all three techniques, surface recombination velocities (SRVs) are reduced by two orders of magnitude after prolonged thermal annealing at 200 °C. This reduction correlates with a decreased dangling bond density at the amorphous-crystalline interface, indicating that dangling bond saturation is the predominant mechanism. All three deposition methods yield excellent surface passivation. For a-Si:H layers deposited by radio frequency plasma enhanced CVD, we obtain outstanding carrier lifetimes of 10.3 ms, corresponding to SRVs below 1.32 cm/s.

Spectral conversion of sunlight is a promising route to reduce spectral mismatch losses that are responsible for the major part of the efficiency losses in solar cells. Both upconversion and downconversion materials are presently explored. In an upconversion process, photons with an energy lower than the band gap of the solar cell are converted to higher energy photons. These higher photons are directed back to the solar cell and absorbed, thus increasing the efficiency. Different types of upconverter materials are investigated, based on luminescent ions or organic molecules. Proof of principle experiments with lanthanide ion based upconverters have indicated that the benefit of an upconversion layer is limited by the high light intensities needed to reach high upconversion quantum efficiencies. To address this limitation, upconverter materials may be combined with quantum dots or plasmonic particles to enhance the upconversion efficiency and improve the feasibility of applying upconverters in commercial solar cells.

Tungsten- and titanium-doped indium oxide (IWO and ITiO) films were deposited at room temperature by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering, and vacuum post-annealing was used to improve the electron mobility. With increasing deposition power, the as deposited films showed an increasingly crystalline nature. Compared with ITiO films, IWO films showed crystallinity at lower RF power. IWO films are partially crystallized at 10 W deposition power and become nearly fully crystalline at 20 W. ITiO films are fully crystalline only at 75 W. For this reason, film thickness has a greater impact on the electrical properties of IWO films than ITiO films. Vacuum post-annealing is more effective in improving electron mobility for amorphous than for (partially) crystalline IWO and ITiO films. Changes in the electrical properties of ITiO films can be better controlled as a function of annealing temperature than those of IWO films. Finally, post annealed 308 nm-thick IWO and 325 nm-thick ITiO films have approximately 80% transmittance in visible and near infrared wavelengths (up to 1100 nm), while their sheet resistances decrease to 9.3 and 10 Ω/□, and their electron mobilities are 51 cm2V− 1 s− 1 and 50 cm2V− 1 s− 1, respectively, making them suitable for use as Transparent Conductive Oxide layers of low bandgap solar cells.

We report on the design, fabrication, and measurement of ultrathin film a-Si:H solar cells with nanostructured plasmonic back contacts, which demonstrate enhanced short circuit current densities compared to cells having flat or randomly textured back contacts. The primary photocurrent enhancement occurs in the spectral range from 550 nm to 800 nm. We use angle-resolved photocurrent spectroscopy to confirm that the enhanced absorption is due to coupling to guided modes supported by the cell. Full-field electromagnetic simulation of the absorption in the active a-Si:H layer agrees well with the experimental results. Furthermore, the nanopatterns were fabricated via an inexpensive, scalable, and precise nanopatterning method. These results should guide design of optimized, non-random nanostructured back reflectors for thin film solar cells.

The paper describes the way to transfer process technology of state-of-the-art high efficiency thin film silicon solar cells fabrication on cheap plastic (such as PET or PEN) substrates, by two completely different approaches: (i) by transfer process (Helianthos concept) of thin film silicon cells deposited at high substrate temperature, T s (∼200 °C) and (ii) direct deposition on temperature sensitive substrates at low T s (∼100 °C). Adaptation of the process parameters and cell processing to the requirement of the flexible/plastic substrate is the most crucial step. In-situ diagnosis of the plasma has been done to understand the effect of inter-electrode distance, substrate temperature and hydrogen dilution on the gas phase conditions. Whereas, for the transfer process, the inter-electrode distance is a critical deposition condition that needs to be adapted for the flexible substrates, the direct deposition on plastic substrates has an added issue of loss in material quality and the deposition rate due to depositions at low T s . Our studies indicate that ion energy is crucial for obtaining compact films at low temperature and high hydrogen dilution helps to compensate the loss of ion energy at low substrate temperatures. Efficiencies of ∼5.9% and 6.2% have been obtained for n–i–p type a-Si cells on PET and PEN substrates, respectively, using direct deposition. Using an adapted inter-electrode distance, an a-Si/nc-Si tandem cell on plastic (polyester) substrate with an efficiency of 8.1% has been made by Helianthos cell transfer process.