Investigation of CdZnTe for Thin-Film Tandem Solar Cell Applications

Effect of Annealing on Physical Properties of Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) Thin Films for Solar Cell Applications

Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) thin films were prepared by directly sputteringCu (In,Ga)Se2 quaternary target consisting of (Cu: 25%, Zn: 12.5%, Sn; 12.5%and S: 50%). The composition and structure of CZTS layers have beeninvestigated after annealing at 200 0C, 350 0C and 500 0C under vacuum. Theresults show that recrystallization of the CZTS thin film occurs and increasingthe grain size with a preferred orie...

Hybrid dielectric light trapping designs for thin-film CdZnTe/Si tandem cells.

Tandem solar cells consisting of high bandgap cadmium telluride alloys atop crystalline silicon have potential for high efficiencies exceeding the Shockley-Queisser limit. However, experimental results have fallen well below this goal significantly because of non-ideal current matching and light trapping. In this work, we simulate cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) and crystalline silicon (c-Si) tand...

Innovative Elastic Thin-Film Solar Cell Structures

Thin-film Silicon Solar Cells for Space Applications: Radiation Hardness and Applications for an Integrated Solant (solar Cell - Antenna) Module

A new device called “Solant” (for SOLar cell – ANTenna) is presented in this paper. It is a combination of thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells and flat printed antennas. A proton irradiation campaign has also been carried out on a series of n-i-p amorphous and p-i-n micromorph [microcrystalline (μc-Si:H) and amorphous (a-Si:H)] silicon tandem solar cells. The effect of thermal annealing on ...

Current Approach in Surface Plasmons for Thin Film and Wire Array Solar Cell Applications

Surface plasmons, which exist along the interface of a metal and a dielectric, have been proposed as an efficient alternative method for light trapping in solar cells during the past ten years. With unique properties such as superior light scattering, optical trapping, guide mode coupling, near field concentration, and hot-electron generation, metallic nanoparticles or nanostructures can be tai...