Organic solar cells made of polymers are an attractive alternative to the conventional solar cells which are commercially used today. The polymer solar cell is cheap to produce, due to the high absorption coefficients which limits the needed thickness of the material and due to the simple manufacturing process, which doesn’t demand high temperatures. However, the efficiencies of polymer solar c...

An efficient antireflection coating is critical for the improvement of silicon solar cell performance via increased light coupling. Here, we have grown well-aligned ZnO nanowhisker (NW) arrays on Czochralski silicon solar cells by a seeding-growth two-step process. It is found that the ZnO NWs have a great effect on the macroscopic antireflection effect and, therefore, improves the solar cell p...

introduction electrical performance of solar cells decreases with increasing cell temperature, basically because of growth of the internal charge carrier recombination rates, caused by increased carrier concentrations. hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (pvt) systems produce electrical and thermal energy simultaneously. pvt solar collectors convert the heat generated in the solar cells to low temperat...

There has been much interest in developing a thin-film solar cell because it is lightweight and flexible. The GaAs thin-film solar cell is a top contender in the thin-film solar cell market in that it has a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to that of other thin-film solar cells. There are two common structures for the GaAs solar cell: n (emitter)-on-p (base) and p-on-n. The forme...

During the last two decades, the Institute of Microtechnology (IMT) has contributed in two important fields to future thin-film silicon solar cell processing and design: (1) In 1987, IMT introduced the so-called ‘‘very high frequency glow discharge (VHF-GD)’’ technique, a method that leads to a considerable enhancement in the deposition rate of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon layers. As ...

Understanding the ultrafast dynamics of photoexcited carriers at semiconductor/molecule interface is essential for improving solar energy conversion efficiency. At such interfaces, hydrogen bond (H-bond) network often formed, and quantum proton motion expected. However, how nuclear effects (NQEs) will influence charge transfer still unknown. By combining two kinds emerging molecular methods ab ...

The research in new organic π-conjugated molecules with specific properties has become one of the most interesting topics in fields of materials chemistry. These materials are promising for optoelectronic device technology such as solar cells. On the other hand, the use of low band gap materials is a viable method for better harvesting of the solar spectrum and increasing its efficiency. The Co...

2014 Influence and passivation of extended crystallographic defects are investigated in large grained polycrystalline silicon wafers and N+ P solar cells. When the mean grain size exceeds 1 mm, the influence of intragrain defects becomes predominant. It was found that the defects have not by themselves a noticeable recombination activity and that the segregation of impurities (oxygen...), could...