Development of thin-film solar cells based on amorphous silicon. Entwicklung von Duennschicht-Solarzellen auf der Basis von amorphem Silizium Mueller, G; Winterling, G 14 SOLAR ENERGY; SILICON SOLAR CELLS; DESIGN; SILICON; AMORPHOUS STATE; CRYSTAL STRUCTURE; DECOMPOSITION; ECONOMICS; EFFICIENCY; HIGH-FREQUENCY DISCHARGES; MANUFACTURING; MECHANICAL PROPERTIES; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; PLASMA; SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS; SERVICE LIFE; STABILITY; TESTING; THIN FILMS; CHEMICAL REACTIONS; DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS; ELECTRIC DISCHARGES; ELEMENTS; EQUIPMENT; FILMS; MATERIALS; PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS; PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS; SEMIMETALS; SOLAR CELLS; SOLAR EQUIPMENT; 140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion This project was aimed to develop a-Si solar cells with an improved efficiency and to determine the characteristics of these cells. Mainly cells with p-i-n-structure were deposited by decomposition of SiH/sub 4/ in a radio-frequency glow discharge. The main results are: SS/p-i-n/ITO cells having 5% AM-1 efficiency at an area of 16 cm/sup 2/; glass/SnO/sub 2//p-i-n/Al cells with areas < 1 cm/sup 2/ having AM-1 efficiencies up to 6%. The cell stability under prolonged illumination was found to depend on firstly the deposition conditions of the a-Si:H material and secondly on whether the light is entering through the p/sup +/- or n/sup +/ layer. Cells with an initial efficiency of 4.5% suffered a decrease of efficiency to 0.94 of its initial value after 400 hours of AM-1 illumination. The cells developed in this project possess properties sufficient to provide power for small-scale applications such as in pocket calculations. However, more progress is needed in efficiency, long-time stability and a-Si deposition rate before a-Si cells become economically useful for power applications. Bundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie, Bonn (Germany, F.R.) NTIS (US Sales Only), PC A04/MF A01; 1. Germany 1985-08-01 German Technical Report Other Information: Portions of this document are illegible in microfiche products. With 21 refs., 1 tab., 39 figs Medium: X; Size: Pages: 72 https://doi.org/ ON: DE86750498 [] BMFT-FB-T-85-096 Other: ON: DE86750498 DE; FRG-84-11397; ERA-11-007097; EDB-86-008340 2013-03-14 7809357