IMR KINKEN Research Highlights 2010

11 IMR KINKEN Research Highlights 2010 Energy-related Materials To manipulate crystal defects and impurities in Si multicrystals is a promising route to improve conversion efficiency of solar cells. Therefore, development of a novel crystal growth technique to permit artificial control of defects has been pursued. It would be ideal if such a technique is based on the practical directional solidification. For this purpose, fundamental understanding of mechanisms on generation of defects during crystal growth is of crucial importance so that one can answer an open question, “How can we decrease defect density in Si multicrystals?”