Task B: Research on stable high-efficiency, large area, amorphous silicon-based solar cells

Technical Report · Sun Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5206295· OSTI ID:5206295

Catalano, A. W.; Ayra, R. R.; Bennett, M. S.; Dickson, C. R.; Fieselmann, B.; Goldstein, B.; Morris, J.; Newton, J. L.; O'Dowd, J. G.; Oswald, R. S.; Twesme, E.; Wiedeman, S.; Yang, L. ^[1]

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1. Solarex Corp., Newtown, PA (USA). Thin Film Div.

This document describes photovoltaic research conducted in four areas: semiconductor materials, high-efficiency cells, nonsemiconductor materials, and submodules. The major focus of semiconductor materials research was on improving the quality of wide-band-gap a-SiC:H alloys and narrow-band-gap a-SiGe:H alloys. Raman spectroscopy suggested that the alloys are inhomogeneous, showing a higher concentration of Ge-Ge bonds than expected from a random mixing model. In high-efficiency device research, silicon-carbon single-junction cells resulted in open-circuit voltages as high as 0.96 V with a higher than 0.6 fill factor. Silicon-germanium cells show far better performance using a p/i-graded interface, an i(a-Si)/i(a-SiGe)-graded interface, and an inverse-graded interface at the i/n junction along with an a-Si n-layer compared with an a-SiGe:H n-layer. In the nonsemiconductor materials research, modeling optical enhancement of long-wavelength light in single-junction cells suggested that several parasitic losses are present in the device structure. In most cases, absorption in the rear contact is the major loss mechanism. In submodule research, the focus was on developing high-efficiency a-Si:H single-junction modules, stable a-Si:H stacked-junction modules, high-efficiency alloy-stacked modules, and advanced laser scribing processes. 74 figs., 13 tabs.

• Research Organization: Solar Energy Research Inst. (SERI), Golden, CO (United States); Solarex Corp., Newtown, PA (USA). Thin Film Div.
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE/CE
• DOE Contract Number: AC02-83CH10093
• OSTI ID: 5206295
• Report Number(s): SERI/STR-211-3580; ON: DE89009491
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
42 ENGINEERING
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
AMORPHOUS STATE
BORON
CHEMICAL FEEDSTOCKS
CRYSTAL MODELS
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FREQUENCY ANALYSIS
GRATINGS
INFRARED SPECTROMETERS
LASERS
LIGHT SOURCES
MATERIALS TESTING
MEASURING METHODS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
PHOTOCONDUCTIVITY
PROGRESS REPORT
RADIATION ABSORPTION ANALYSIS
RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY
RUTHERFORD SCATTERING
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SILICON ALLOYS
SILICON CARBIDES
SOLAR CONTROL FILMS
X-RAY EMISSION ANALYSIS
ALLOYS
CARBIDES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DATA
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
DOCUMENT TYPES
EFFICIENCY
ELASTIC SCATTERING
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
ELEMENTS
EQUIPMENT
FILMS
INFORMATION
JUNCTIONS
LASER SPECTROSCOPY
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
NONDESTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS
NUMERICAL DATA
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATION SOURCES
SCATTERING
SEMIMETALS
SILICON COMPOUNDS
SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR EQUIPMENT
SPECTROMETERS
SPECTROSCOPY
TESTING
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion
420500 - Engineering- Materials Testing