Development of low-cost thin-film polycrystalline silicon solar cells for terrestrial applications. Quarterly progress report no. 3, 1 Jul--30 Sep 1975

Technical Report · Wed Oct 01 04:00:00 EDT 1975

OSTI ID:7327321

Chu, T L

The recrystallization of silicon on graphite substrates has been continued to further improve the size and uniformity of the crystallites. Silicon solar cells with AMO efficiencies up to 3% have been produced. The deposition and characterization of silicon solar cells on metallurgical-grade silicon substrates have also been carried out. AMO efficiencies up to 4% were obtained for solar cells on cast substrates. Solar cells deposited on Czochralski and zone-refined metallurgical silicon substrates had higher efficiencies. The purification of metallurgical silicon by the zone refining technique has been considered in detail. The floating-zone technique is limited to one zone per pass and does not appear to be economical. Cold wall metal container and thin wall quartz container can be used for the horizontal refining of silicon, and the latter appears to be economically viable. (GRA)

• Research Organization: Southern Methodist Univ., Dallas, Tex. (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7327321
• Report Number(s): PB-252978; NSF/RANN/SE/AER-73-07843/PR/75/3
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
140501* -- Solar Energy Conversion-- Photovoltaic Conversion
COST
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DEPOSITION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
EFFICIENCY
ELEMENTS
FILMS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
SEMIMETALS
SILICON
SILICON SOLAR CELLS
SOLAR CELLS