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Title: Silicon sheet with molecular beam epitaxy for high efficiency solar cells. Final technical report, March 22, 1982-April 30, 1984

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6721099· OSTI ID:6721099

A two-year program has been carried out for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in which the UCLA silicon MBE facility has been used to attempt to grow silicon solar cells of high efficiency. MBE ofers the potential of growing complex and arbitrary doping profiles with 10 A depth resolution. It is the only technique taht can readily grow built-in front and back surface fields of any desired depth and value in silicon solar cells, or the more complicated profiles needed for a double junction cascade cell, all in silicon, connected in series by a tunnel junction. Although the dopant control required for such structures has been demonstrated in silicon by UCLA, crystal quality at the p-n junctions is still too poor to allow the other advantages to be exploited. Results from other laboratories indicate that this problem will soon be overcome. A computer analysis of the double cascade all in silicon shows that efficiencies can be raised over that of any single silicon cell by 1 or 2%, and that open circuit voltage of almost twice that of a single cell should be possible.

Research Organization:
California Univ., Los Angeles (USA). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
DOE Contract Number:
NAS-7-100-956233
OSTI ID:
6721099
Report Number(s):
DOE/JPL/956233-83/2; ON: DE84014923
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions are illegible in microfiche products. Original copy available until stock is exhausted
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English