Mixed-phase hydrogenated silicon oxide (SiOx:H) is applied to thin-film hydrogenated amorphous silicon germanium (a-SiGe:H) solar cells serving as both p-doped and n-doped layers. The bandgap of p-SiOx:H is adjusted to achieve a highly-transparent window layer while also providing a strong electric field. Bandgap grading of n-SiOx:H is designed to obtain a smooth transition of the energy band e...

Partial shadowing is one of the problems that are always faced in terrestrial applications of solar photovoltaic (PV). The effects of partial shadow on the energy yield of conventional mono-crystalline and multi-crystalline PV modules have been researched for a long time. With deployment of new thin-film solar PV modules in the market, it is important to understand the performance of new PV mod...

Surface roughening during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition of hydrogenated amorphous silicon on crystal silicon substrates" Physical Review B. The morphology of a series of thin films of hydrogenated amorphous silicon ͑a-Si:H͒ grown by plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition ͑PECVD͒ is studied using scanning tunneling microscopy. The substrates were atomically flat, oxide-free, single-cr...

We propose the use of bimetallic non-alloyed nanoparticles (BNNPs) to improve the broadband optical absorption of thin amorphous silicon substrates. Isolated bimetallic NPs with uniform size distribution on glass and silicon are obtained by depositing a 10-nm Au film and annealing it at 600°C; this is followed by an 8-nm Ag film annealed at 400°C. We experimentally demonstrate that the depositi...

In this paper, hardware realization of Cellular Neural Networks in amorphous silicon thin film technology is proposed. In this way, it is possible to realize inexpensive large-scale, easily programmable circuits, with integrated light-sensing and -emitting devices.

0167-9317/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. A doi:10.1016/j.mee.2010.08.001 ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Kanick We report on the effects of back channel etch depth and etchant chemistry on the electrical characteristics of inverted staggered advanced amorphous silicon thin-film transistors. We found that the optimum amorphous silicon film thickness in t...

Ultrafast pulsed laser irradiation is demonstrated to be able to produce surface nano-structuring and simultaneous crystallization of amorphous silicon thin film in one step laser processing. After fs laser irradiation on 80 nm-thick a-Si deposited on Corning 1737 glass substrate, the color change from light yellow to dark brown was observed on the sample surface. AFM images show that the surfa...

In this work, we investigate heterojunction emitters deposited by Hot-Wire CVD on p-type crystalline silicon. The emitter structure consists of an n-doped film (20 nm) combined with a very thin intrinsic hydrogenated amorphous silicon buffer layer (5 nm). The microstructure of these films has been studied by Spectroscopic Ellipsometry in the UV-visible range. These measurements reveal that the ...