Название: Nanotechnology and Photovoltaic Devices
Автор: Jan Valenta and Salvo Mirabella
Издательство: Pan Stanford
Год: 2015
Формат: PDF
Размер: 35 Мб
Язык: английский / English
Silicon is an abundant element and is produced in large quantities for the electronic industry. The falling price of this commodity also feeds the growth of solar photovoltaics (PV). However, solar cells (SCs) based on bulk semiconductors have quite limited maximum attainable performance. Therefore, new principles and materials are being investigated to build the third generation of SCs with improved conversion efficiency achieved by the optimized harvesting of the solar spectrum, improved carrier generation, better light management, etc. The unique properties of semiconductor nanostructures (tuning of optoelectronic properties by the quantum confinement effect, stronger interaction with light, etc.) can be exploited to fabricate novel types of high-efficiency solar cells. Here, again, silicon along with carbon and germanium (group IV elements) is about to play a major role.