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Güneş, Mehmet (author), Melskens, Jimmy (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)In this study, undoped hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films deposited under moderate dilution ratios of silane by radio frequency plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RF-PECVD) have been investigated using steady-state photoconductivity and improved dual beam photoconductivity (DBP) methods to identify changes in multiple...journal article 2023
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Zhao, Y. (author), Procel Moya, P.A. (author), Han, C. (author), Cao, L. (author), Yang, G. (author), Özkol, E. (author), Alcañiz, Alba (author), Kovačević, K. (author), Limodio, G. (author), Santbergen, R. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author), Weeber, A.W. (author), Zeman, M. (author), Mazzarella, L. (author), Isabella, O. (author)Silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells have achieved a record efficiency of 26.81% in a front/back-contacted (FBC) configuration. Moreover, thanks to their advantageous high V<sub>OC</sub> and good infrared response, SHJ solar cells can be further combined with wide bandgap perovskite cells forming tandem devices to enable efficiencies well...journal article 2023
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de Vrijer, T. (author), van Dingen, Julian E.C. (author), Roelandschap, Paul J. (author), Roodenburg, Koos (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Amorphous and nano-crystalline germanium is of potential interest for a wide range of electronic, optical, opto-electronic and photovoltaic applications. In this work the influence of deposition temperature on hydrogenated germanium (Ge:H) films was characterized, using over 200 Ge:H and over 70 SiGe:H films. The demonstrated temperature...journal article 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), van Nijen, D.A. (author), Parasramka, Harsh (author), Procel Moya, P.A. (author), Zhao, Y. (author), Isabella, O. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Two terminal multi-junction (MJ) photovoltaic (PV) devices are well established concepts to increase the solar-to-electrical power conversion in reference to single PV junctions. In multi-junction PV devices two consecutive sub-cells are interconnected using a tunnel recombination junction (TRJ) in which the light excited holes of one sub...journal article 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Bouazzata, Bilal (author), Ravichandran, Ashwath (author), van Dingen, Julian E.C. (author), Roelandschap, Paul J. (author), Roodenburg, Koos (author), Roerink, Steven J. (author), Saitta, F.S. (author), Blackstone, Thijs (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)In this paper the opto-electrical nature of hydrogenated group IV alloys with optical bandgap energies ranging from 1.0 eV up to 2.3 eV are studied. The fundamental physical principles that determine the relation between the bandgap and the structural characteristics such as material density, elemental composition, void fraction and...journal article 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Miedema, Sander (author), Blackstone, Thijs (author), van Nijen, D.A. (author), Han, C. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)A logical next step for achieving a cost price reduction per Watt peak of photovoltaics (PV) is multijunction PV devices. In two-terminal multijunction PV devices, the photo-current generated in each subcell should be matched. Intermediate reflective layers (IRLs) are widely employed in multijunction devices to increase reflection at the...journal article 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)The oxidation and carbisation kinetics of porous amorphous and nano-crystalline hydrogenated germanium (a-Ge:H and nc-Ge:H) films exposed to ambient air and deionized water have been studied using vibration modes observed by infrared spectroscopy. Based on infrared analysis, a two-step process of first oxidation by water and secondly carbisation...journal article 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Bouazzata, Bilal (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Semiconductors based on group IV elements are widely used in the fields of micro-electronics, optics and photonics. The group IV alloys are processed using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and its opto-electrical properties are a result of the material composition and structure. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy are complementary and...journal article 2022
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Zhao, Y. (author), Procel Moya, P.A. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author), Mazzarella, L. (author), Han, C. (author), Yang, G. (author), Cao, L. (author), Yao, Z. (author), Weeber, A.W. (author), Zeman, M. (author), Isabella, O. (author)Excellent surface passivation induced by (i)a-Si:H is critical to achieve high-efficiency silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells. This is key for conventional single-junction cell applications but also for bottom cell application in tandem devices. In this study, we investigated the effects of (i)a-Si:H deposition temperature on passivation...journal article 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Roodenburg, Koos (author), Saitta, F.S. (author), Blackstone, Thijs (author), Limodio, G. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)An alloy based on the group IV elements germanium and tin has the potential of yielding an earth-abundant low bandgap energy semiconductor material with applications in the fields of micro-electronics, optics, photonics and photovoltaics. In this work, the first steps towards the plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) processing of a...journal article 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)In this abstract an overview is presented of research performed in the DISCO project, on the development of a silicon-based high voltage multijunction device for autonomous solar to fuel applications.'conference paper 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Wiering, M. (author), van Nijen, D.A. (author), Padmakumar, G. (author), Sambamurthy, S. (author), Limodio, G. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Surface textures that result in high optical yields are crucial for high efficiency photovoltaic (PV) devices. In this work three different texturing approaches are presented that result in smooth concave structures devoid of sharp features. Such features can sustain the crack-free growth of device quality nano- to poly-crystalline materials...journal article 2022
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Doped layers are a determining factor for the performance of photovoltaic devices such as silicon heterojunction and thin film silicon solar cells. The material properties of doped hydrogenated amorphous/nanocrystalline silicon-oxide (a/nc-SiO X≥0 :H) films processed by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition generally exhibit a tradeoff...journal article 2021
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Ravichandran, Ashwath (author), Bouazzata, Bilal (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Low-cost multijunction photovoltaic devices are the next step in the solar energy revolution. Adding a bottom junction with a low bandgap energy material through plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) processing could potentially provide a low-cost boost in conversion efficiency. A logical candidate for this low bandgap material is...journal article 2021
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de Vrijer, T. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Crystalline silicon tandem devices with perovskites, CIGS, and nanocrystalline silicon, as well as the TOPCon design, are incompatible with the conventional pyramidal surface texture of silicon. This is a result of crack formation in nano to polycrystalline growth on large sharp surface features. In this work, three texturing approaches are...journal article 2021
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Limodio, G. (author), Bartesaghi, Davide (author), Hietkamp, Maurice (author), Rajagopal, D. (author), Nawaratne, Sajith (author), Hamers, Edward (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)In this work we focus on texturing Al substrate in order to employ the modulated surface texturing approach for thin-film, flexible, micromorph solar cells. We deployed two different methods to induce micro-craters in Al foil, i) bare Al etching by KOH and ii) AZO sacrificial layer etched in KOH. After modelling the etching kinetics of KOH on...conference paper 2020
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Vijselaar, Wouter J.C. (author), Perez Rodriguez, P. (author), Westerik, Pieter J. (author), Tiggelaar, Roald M. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author), Gardeniers, Han (author), Huskens, Jurriaan (author)Wireless photoelectrochemical (PEC) devices promise easy device fabrication as well as reduced losses. Here, the design and fabrication of a stand-alone ion exchange material-embedded, Si membrane-based, photoelectrochemical cell architecture with micron-sized pores is shown, to overcome the i) pH gradient formation due to long-distance ion...journal article 2019
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Perez Rodriguez, P. (author), Vijselaar, Wouter (author), Huskens, Jurriaan (author), Stam, Machiel (author), Falkenberg, M. (author), Zeman, M. (author), Smith, W.A. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Solar fuels are a promising way to store solar energy seasonally. This paper proposes an earth-abundant heterostructure to split water using a photovoltaic-electrochemical device (PV-EC). The heterostructure is based on a hybrid architecture of a thin-film (TF) silicon tandem on top of a c-Si wafer (W) heterojunction solar cell (a-Si:H (TF)...journal article 2019
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Perez Rodriguez, P. (author), Maqueira Gonzalez, Carlos (author), Doekhi-Bennani, Y. (author), Rietveld, L.C. (author), Zeman, M. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Currently available (photo-)electrochemical technologies for water treatment establish a trade-off between low-pollutant concentration and costs. This paper aims at decoupling these two variables by designing a photo-oxidation device using earth abundant materials and an electronic-free approach. The proposed device combines a graphite...journal article 2018
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Perez Rodriguez, P. (author), Cardenas-Morcoso, Drialys (author), Digdaya, I.A. (author), Mangel Raventos, A. (author), Procel Moya, P.A. (author), Isabella, O. (author), Gimenez, Sixto (author), Zeman, M. (author), Smith, W.A. (author), Smets, A.H.M. (author)Amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) is a promising material for photoelectrochemical water splitting owing to its relatively small band-gap energy and high chemical and optoelectrical stability. This work studies the interplay between charge-carrier separation and collection, and their injection into the electrolyte, when modifying the...journal article 2018