Seminars Archive

Amorphous-nanocrystalline silicon thin films for photovoltaic application

Abstract
Amorphous thin silicon films are widely used as optoelectronic materials in particularly as active part of thin film photovoltaic solar cells. However, the material is not stable when exposed to the solar radiation (Staebler-Wronski effect) and thus in the last decade the mixture between the amorphous and the nanocrystalline structural form has been extensively investigated as a possible candidate for replacing the fully amorphous material in “third generation” solar cells. Its good optical properties are due to the microstructure, which consists of silicon nanocrystalls embedded in amorphous silicon matrix. a-nc-Si:H can be prepared by radio-frequency discharge plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition by using highly diluted mixture of silane and hydrogen as a working gas.