Plasma Deposition of Amorphous Silicon-Based Materials

Plasma Deposition of Amorphous Silicon-Based Materials
Author: Pio Capezzuto
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 339
Release: 1995-10-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0080539106

Semiconductors made from amorphous silicon have recently become important for their commercial applications in optical and electronic devices including FAX machines, solar cells, and liquid crystal displays. Plasma Deposition of Amorphous Silicon-Based Materials is a timely, comprehensive reference book written by leading authorities in the field. This volume links the fundamental growth kinetics involving complex plasma chemistry with the resulting semiconductor film properties and the subsequent effect on the performance of the electronic devices produced. - Focuses on the plasma chemistry of amorphous silicon-based materials - Links fundamental growth kinetics with the resulting semiconductor film properties and performance of electronic devices produced - Features an international group of contributors - Provides the first comprehensive coverage of the subject, from deposition technology to materials characterization to applications and implementation in state-of-the-art devices

Nanostructured Solar Cells

Nanostructured Solar Cells
Author: Narottam Das
Publisher: BoD – Books on Demand
Total Pages: 316
Release: 2017-02-22
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 953512935X

Nanostructured solar cells are very important in renewable energy sector as well as in environmental aspects, because it is environment friendly. The nano-grating structures (such as triangular or conical shaped) have a gradual change in refractive index which acts as a multilayer antireflective coating that is leading to reduced light reflection losses over broadband ranges of wavelength and angle of incidence. There are different types of losses in solar cells that always reduce the conversion efficiency, but the light reflection loss is the most important factor that decreases the conversion efficiency of solar cells significantly. The antireflective coating is an optical coating which is applied to the surface of lenses or any optical devices to reduce the light reflection losses. This coating assists for the light trapping capturing capacity or improves the efficiency of optical devices, such as lenses or solar cells. Hence, the multilayer antireflective coatings can reduce the light reflection losses and increases the conversion efficiency of nanostructured solar cells.

Application of Localized Surface Plasmons for the Enhancement of This-film Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells

Application of Localized Surface Plasmons for the Enhancement of This-film Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells
Author: Chanse D.. Hungerford
Publisher:
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2017
Genre:
ISBN:

"Photovoltaics (PV) is a rapidly growing electricity source and new PV technologies are continually being developed. Increasing the efficiency of PV will continue to drive down the costs of solar installations. One area of research that is necessary for increasing PV performance is light management. This is especially true for thin-film devices that are unable to maximize absorption of the solar spectrum in a single pass. Methods for light trapping include texturing, high index nanostructures, nanophotonic structures, and plasmonics. This research focus on the use of plasmonic structures, in this case metallic nanoparticles, to increase the power conversion efficiency of solar cells. Three different designs are investigated. First was an a-Si:H solar cell, approximately 300nm thick, with a rear reflector consisting of metallic nanoparticles and a mirror. This structure is referred to as a plasmonic back reflector. Simulations indicate that a maximum absorption increase of 7.2% in the 500nm to 800nm wavelength range is possible versus a flat reference. Experiments did not show enhancement, likely due to absorption in the transparent conducting oxide and the parasitic absorption in the small metallic nanoparticles. The second design was an a-Si:H solar cell with embedded metal nanoparticles. Experimental devices were successfully fabricated by breaking the i-layer deposition into two steps and introducing colloidal nanoparticles between the two depositions. These devices performed worse than the controls, but the results provide proof that fabrication of such a device is possible and may be improved in the future. Suggestions for improvements are discussed. The final device investigated was an ultra-thin, undoped solar cell. The device used an absorber layer

Handbook of Photovoltaic Silicon

Handbook of Photovoltaic Silicon
Author: Deren Yang
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-11-28
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9783662564714

The utilization of sun light is one of the hottest topics in sustainable energy research. To efficiently convert sun power into a reliable energy – electricity – for consumption and storage, silicon and its derivatives have been widely studied and applied in solar cell systems. This handbook covers the photovoltaics of silicon materials and devices, providing a comprehensive summary of the state of the art of photovoltaic silicon sciences and technologies. This work is divided into various areas including but not limited to fundamental principles, design methodologies, wafering techniques/fabrications, characterizations, applications, current research trends and challenges. It offers the most updated and self-explanatory reference to all levels of students and acts as a quick reference to the experts from the fields of chemistry, material science, physics, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, solar energy, etc..

Thin Film Solar Cells

Thin Film Solar Cells
Author: Jef Poortmans
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2006-10-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0470091266

Thin-film solar cells are either emerging or about to emerge from the research laboratory to become commercially available devices finding practical various applications. Currently no textbook outlining the basic theoretical background, methods of fabrication and applications currently exist. Thus, this book aims to present for the first time an in-depth overview of this topic covering a broad range of thin-film solar cell technologies including both organic and inorganic materials, presented in a systematic fashion, by the scientific leaders in the respective domains. It covers a broad range of related topics, from physical principles to design, fabrication, characterization, and applications of novel photovoltaic devices.

Thin-Film Structures for Photovoltaics: Volume 485

Thin-Film Structures for Photovoltaics: Volume 485
Author: Eric D. Jones
Publisher: Mrs Proceedings
Total Pages: 336
Release: 1998
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN:

Contains 49 papers from the December 1997 symposium. The contributions are organized into three sections devoted to silicon-, II-VI-, and III-V-based thin films, as well as a section on general thin films. A number of processes are dealt with, including VEST; ion-beam, plasma, laser, low temperature sputter, and metalorganic chemical vapor depositions; and various growth techniques. In addition, analysis and modeling methodologies are discussed. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Thin Films for Photovoltaic and Related Device Applications: Volume 426

Thin Films for Photovoltaic and Related Device Applications: Volume 426
Author: David Ginley
Publisher:
Total Pages: 632
Release: 1996-11-18
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN:

There has been considerable progress in the development of thin-film photovoltaic devices with new efficiency records and enhanced durability. These achievements are the result of significant advances in the fundamental understanding of the materials, interfaces and devices. With 18 countries represented, this truly international volume brings together engineers and researchers from academic, industrial and national laboratories worldwide to review different materials systems and address common issues and problems. A wide variety of topics related to the development of thin-film photovoltaic and related devices, including thick-film transistors and materials for flat-panel displays, are addressed. Areas of emphasis include materials synthesis, device fabrication and characterization, and modelling. Topics include: thin-film amorphous silicon devices; thin-film silicon devices; thin-film devices based on copper-indium diselenide; cadmium-telluride devices; transparent conductive oxides and related materials for thin-film devices; and novel concepts for thin-film photovoltaics.

Materials for Sustainable Energy

Materials for Sustainable Energy
Author: Vincent Dusastre
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2011
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9814317640

The search for cleaner, cheaper, smaller and more efficient energy technologies has to a large extent been motivated by the development of new materials. The aim of this collection of articles is therefore to focus on what materials-based solutions can offer and show how the rationale design and improvement of their physical and chemical properties can lead to energy-production alternatives that have the potential to compete with existing technologies. In terms of alternative means to generate electricity that utilize renewable energy sources, the most dramatic breakthroughs for both mobile (i.e., transportation) and stationary applications are taking place in the fields of solar and fuel cells. And from an energy-storage perspective, exciting developments can be seen emerging from the fields of rechargeable batteries and hydrogen storage.

Multifunctional Plasmonic Metasurfaces for Inverted Organic Photovoltaics

Multifunctional Plasmonic Metasurfaces for Inverted Organic Photovoltaics
Author: Christopher E. Petoukhoff
Publisher:
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2017
Genre: Photovoltaic cells
ISBN:

Emerging next-generation photovoltaic devices are fabricated from thin-films, with devices having thicknesses of less than 1 um, because of the reduced material waste, lower embodied energy, and propensity for forming flexible, light-weight devices. However, thin-film photovoltaics have limited absorption of light close to the absorption band edge of the semiconducting photoactive layer. In addition, thin-film photovoltaics fabricated from amorphous semiconductors, such as amorphous Si or organic semiconductors, typically require semiconductor thicknesses of ~100 nm due to their low charge carrier mobilities and correspondingly low charge diffusion lengths. However, by restricting the semiconducting active layer thickness in order to efficiently collect photogenerated charge carriers at the electrodes, incomplete light absorption occurs throughout the visible spectrum. To satisfy these competing constraints on the active layer thickness, light trapping techniques are required to increase the amount of light absorbed in physically-thin active layers. Conventional light trapping in thick, crystalline Si photovoltaics is typically achieved using micron-scale photonic structures that are not suitable for thin-film photovoltaics, which have active layers that are thinner than the height of these structures. Additionally, it is difficult to trap light in active layers with thicknesses below the diffraction limit (thicknesses less than half a wavelength in the material) using conventional photonic designs (e.g. total internal reflection of light scattered from a roughened surface). As such, nanophotonic designs, such as plasmonic nanostructures, are necessary to enhance the amount of light that can be absorbed by thin-film semiconductors. Here, we propose the use of multifunctional plasmonic metasurfaces to enhance the light trapping and absorption within physically-thin semiconductor active layers. Plasmonic metasurfaces are two-dimensional artificial materials composed of arrays of sub-wavelength metallic nanostructures where the macroscopic electromagnetic properties of the surface arise from the collective response of the individual nanostructures. They support both localized and propagating surface plasmon polaritons, which are hybrid light-charge density waves that exist at metal-dielectric interfaces and have strongly enhanced electric fields near the metal surface. Use of plasmonic metasurfaces in thin-film photovoltaics leads to enhanced absorption via: increased generation of charge carriers by local electric field enhancements; or increased optical path length through the semiconducting active layer either through light scattering from the nanostructures or by coupling the light to an in-plane waveguiding plasmonic mode. As such, thin-films of semiconductors can be both physically and electrically thin (i.e., thinner than the carrier diffusion length), but optically thick when employing plasmonic metasurfaces as electrodes. We gain further control of the properties of the electrode through application of an ultrathin interfacial layer, with thicknesses of less than 5 nm, which allows for tailoring the electronic properties (e.g., surface workfunction) while minimizing the impact on the optical properties of the resulting multifunctional plasmonic metasurface. In this thesis, we designed and fabricated multifunctional plasmonic metasurfaces with a focus on organic conjugated polymers as thin-film semiconductor active layers. Conjugated-polymer-based organic photovoltaics have shown great potential as alternative energy sources due to their propensity for solution-based processing, rendering devices with the fastest manufacture and energy payback times of all photovoltaic technologies. Conjugated polymers are organic semiconductors composed of primarily earth-abundant elements, and their optical, electronic, and morphological properties can be tuned synthetically. Due to the formation of tightly-bound Frenkel excitons upon photoexcitation, conjugated polymers have strong absorption coefficients, rendering them opaque at film thicknesses on the order of several hundred nanometers. However, like other organic semiconductors, conjugated polymers have low charge mobilities, restricting their thicknesses to less than ~100 nm to minimize charge recombination, thus necessitating the use of nanophotonic light trapping techniques. Improvements in the efficiency of photovoltaics predominantly arise from increases in the photocurrent or the open-circuit voltage of the device. We begin this work by predicting the optimal planar metal electrode structure by calculating the performance parameters for two types of organic photovoltaic devices (conventional and inverted) with a range of electrode surface workfunctions. We show that highly-efficient and stable inverted organic photovoltaics can be achieved by selecting metal electrodes with low parasitic absorption and high workfunctions, which maximizes the photocurrent and open-circuit voltage of the device, respectively. Based on our calculations, Ag electrodes with ultrathin (less than 5 nm) native AgOx surface layers lead to inverted organic photovoltaic devices with maximal efficiencies due to the low parasitic absorption and high workfunction of AgOx/Ag electrodes. This is the first reported theoretical study that systematically compares the performance parameters of conventional and inverted devices considering a range of different metal electrode types. Having predicted the optimal metal electrode and photovoltaic device structure, we design and fabricate plasmonic metasurfaces comprised of Ag nanoparticle arrays on Ag films to increase the active layer absorption in thin-film photovoltaics. We demonstrate that plasmonic metasurfaces comprised of low aspect ratio (height-to-diameter fraction) Ag nanoparticles can lead to enhanced absorption in organic active layers. We show that, in addition to the localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) and propagating surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), absorber-coated plasmonic metasurfaces can support a previously unidentified optical mode type called absorption-induced scattering (AIS). Through our systematic experimental and computational studies, we show that AIS originates from the low energy mode of hybrid plasmon-exciton coupled states, and gives rise to many of the red-edge absorption enhancements frequently observed in plasmon-enhanced organic photovoltaics. We further demonstrate that SPPs with energies less than the AIS mode are out-coupled from absorber-coated metasurfaces for amorphous absorber coatings, but are trapped for semi-crystalline absorber coatings. In addition to developing a deep understanding of how Ag plasmonic metasurfaces can be employed to enhance sub-wavelength light-trapping and absorption in thin-film organic photovoltaic active layers, we further develop a method of controlling the surface workfunction of plasmonic metasurfaces. We fabricate multifunctional plasmonic metasurfaces comprised of Ag metasurfaces with ultrathin interfacial layers to simultaneously control the optical and electronic properties of the metasurface. We employ monolayer MoS2 and AgOx as ultrathin interfacial layers to minimize changes to the optical properties of the plasmonic metasurfaces. We show that, unexpectedly, the MoS2 interfacial layer contributed to the charge photogeneration process, resulting in the formation of a hybrid MoS2-organic active layer. We demonstrate ultrafast charge transfer between MoS2 and the organic layer, and show that the absorption and total charge generation is enhanced in the presence of the Ag plasmonic metasurface. AgOx, on the other hand, serves as a passive interfacial layer, and does not impact the optical properties of the Ag plasmonic metasurface. Thus, these multifunctional plasmonic metasurfaces allow for control of the optical properties of the electrode through the metasurface designs and the electrical properties through selection of ultrathin interfacial layers, which are expected to give rise to enhanced photocurrent and open-circuit voltage, respectively, in thin-film photovoltaic devices.