Strategies for realizing high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells

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_OC and good infrared response, SHJ solar cells can be further combined with wide bandgap perovskite cells forming tandem devices to enable efficiencies well...

Application of metal, metal-oxide, and silicon-oxide based intermediate reflective layers for current matching in autonomous high-voltage multijunction photovoltaic devices

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...

Effects of (i)a-Si: H deposition temperature on high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells

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...

A thin-film silicon/silicon hetero-junction hybrid solar cell for photoelectrochemical water-reduction applications

A hybrid tandem solar cell consisting of a thin-film, nanocrystalline silicon top junction and a siliconheterojunction bottom junction is proposed as a supporting solar cell for photoelectrochemical applications.Tunneling recombination junction engineering is shown to be an important consideration indesigning this type of solar cell. The best...

Size control, quantum confinement, and oxidation kinetics of silicon nanocrystals synthesized at a high rate by expanding thermal plasma

The growth mechanism of silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) synthesized at a high rate by means of expanding thermal plasma chemical vapor deposition technique are studied in this letter. A bimodal Gaussian size distribution is revealed from the high-resolution transmission electron microscopy images, and routes to reduce the unwanted large Si NCs are...

Raman Study of Laser Induced Heating Effects in Free-Standing Silicon Nanocrystals

This paper demonstrates that free-standing silicon nanocrystals (Si NCs) have significantly different thermal conductivity properties compared to Si NCs embedded in a host matrix. The temperatures of Si NCs under laser illumination have been determined by measuring the ratio of the Anti-Stokes to Stokes intensities of the first order Si–Si...