Introducing nanophotonics into photovoltaics sets the path for scaling down the surface texture of crystalline-silicon solar cells from themicroto the nanoscale, allowing to further boost the photon absorptionwhile reducing siliconmaterial loss. However, keeping excellent electrical performance has proven to be very challenging, as the absorber is damaged by the nanotexturing and the sensitivit...

Selective emitter solar cells were fabricated with a reduced number of technological steps. Laser doping is often discussed in relation to silicon photovoltaic cell efficiency enhancement. In this paper, we present results of the development of a selective emitter structure for multicrystalline silicon solar cells suitable for industrial mass production. A pulsed laser is used to obtain highly ...

Thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells have been improved significantly through research, development and manufacturing since their discovery twenty years ago, but there are still a number of fundamental problems and issues that must be resolved before they can reach their full potential. There is still a significant lack of knowledge about the structure and bonding of hydrogenate...

In this work, we report for the first time on the solar cell fabrication on n-type silicon RST (for Ribbon on Sacrificial Template) using plasma immersion ion implantation. The experiments were also carried out on FZ silicon as a reference. Boron was implanted at energies from 10 to 15 kV and doses from 10 to 10 cm−2, then activated by a thermal annealing in a conventional furnace at 900 and 95...

The front transparent conductive oxide layer is a source of significant optical and electrical losses in silicon heterojunction solar cells because of the trade-off between free-carrier absorption and sheet resistance. We demonstrate that hydrogen-doped indium oxide (IO:H), which has an electron mobility of over 100 cm/V s, reduces these losses compared to traditional, low-mobility transparent ...

Nanowire-based solar cells opened a new avenue for increasing conversion efficiency and rationalizing material use by growing different III-V materials on silicon substrates. Here, we propose a multiterminal nanowire solar cell design with a theoretical conversion efficiency of 48.3% utilizing an efficient lateral spectrum splitting between three different III-V material nanowire arrays grown o...

In this paper, we report our recent progress in the amorphous silicon (a-Si)-based photovoltaic research program at The University of Toledo (UT). We have achieved the fabrication of (1) wide bandgap a-Si solar cells with an open-circuit voltage of 0.981 and a "ll factor of 0.728 using high hydrogen dilution for the i-layer deposition, (2) mid bandgap a-SiGe solar cells having an open-circuit v...

In the case of high photovoltaic (PV) penetration into the electricity grid, the energy produced by a PV system that is effectively used (useful energy) depends on the energy yield and on how this energy is managed to avoid detrimental effects occurring at high PV injection, e.g. during the midday peak. The overall goal of this thesis is to provide guidelines for maximizing the useful energy of...

Our energy consumption relies heavily on the three components of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas and coal) and nearly 83% of our current energy is consumed from those sources. The use of fossil fuels, however, has been viewed as a major environmental threat because of their substantial contribution to greenhouse gases which are responsible for increasing the global average temperature. Last four...