Textured Perovskite/Silicon Tandem Solar Cells Achieving Over 30% Efficiency Promoted by 4-Fluorobenzylamine Hydroiodide

Monolithic textured perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells(TSCs)are expected to achieve maximum light capture at the lowest cost,potentially exhibiting the best power conversion efficiency.However,it is challenging to fabricate high-quality perovskite films and preferred crystal orientation on commercially textured silicon substrates with micrometersize pyramids.Here,we introduced a bulky organic molecule(4-fluorobenzylamine hydroiodide(F-PMAI))as a perovskite additive.It is found that F-PMAI can retard the crystallization process of perovskite film through hydrogen bond interaction between F^(−)and FA^(+)and reduce(111)facet surface energy due to enhanced adsorption energy of F-PMAI on the(111)facet.Besides,the bulky molecular is extruded to the bottom and top of perovskite film after crystal growth,which can passivate interface defects through strong interaction between F-PMA+and undercoordinated Pb^(2+)/I^(−).As a result,the additive facilitates the formation of large perovskite grains and(111)preferred orientation with a reduced trap-state density,thereby promoting charge carrier transportation,and enhancing device performance and stability.The perovskite/silicon TSCs achieved a champion efficiency of 30.05%based on a silicon thin film tunneling junction.In addition,the devices exhibit excellent longterm thermal and light stability without encapsulation.This work provides an effective strategy for achieving efficient and stable TSCs.

Doped-Chamber Deposition of Intrinsic Microcrystalline Silicon Thin Films and Its Application in Solar Cells

A series of microcrystalline silicon thin films were fabricated by very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition （VHF-PECVD） at different silane concentrations in a P chamber. Through analysis of the structural and electrical properties of these materials,we conclude that the photosensitivity slightly decreased then increased as the silane concentration increased,while the crystalline volume fraction indicates the opposite change. Results of XRD indicate that thin films have a （220） preferable orientation under certain conditions. Microcrystalline silicon solar cells with conversion efficiency 4. 7% and micromorph tandem solar cells 8.5% were fabricated by VHF-PECVD （p layer and i layer of microcrystalline silicon solar cells were deposited in P chamber）, respectively.

One-step Fabrication of Nanoporous Black Silicon Surfaces for Solar Cells using Modified Etching Solution

Currently, a conventional two-step method has been used to generate black silicon （BS） surfaces on silicon substrates for solar cell manufacturing. However, the performances of the solar cell made with such surface generation method are poor, because of the high surface recombination caused by deep etching in the conventional surface generation method for BS. In this work, a modified wet chemical etching solution with additives was developed. A homogeneous BS layer with random porous structure was obtained from the modified solution in only one step at room temperature. The BS layer had low reflectivity and shallow etching depth. The additive in the etch solution performs the function of pH-modulation. After 16-min etching, the etching depth in the samples was approximately 200 nm, and the spectrum-weighted-reflectivity in the range from 300 nm to 1200 nm was below 5%. BS solar cells were fabricated in the production line. The decreased etching depth can improve the electrical performance of solar cells because of the decrease in surface recombination. An efficiency of 15.63% for the modified etching BS solar cells was achieved on a large area, p- type single crystalline silicon substrate with a 624.32-mV open circuit voltage and a 77.88% fill factor.

Influence of texture feature size on spherical silicon solar cells

The effects of surface texturing on spherical silicon solar cells were investigated. Surface texturing for spherical Si solar cells was prepared by immersing p-type spherical Si crystals in KOH solution with stirring. Two kinds of texture feature sizes (1 and 5 μm pyramids) were prepared by changing stirring speed. After fabrication through our baseline processes, these cells were evaluated by solar cell performance and external quantum efficiency. The cell with 1 and 5 μm pyramids shows the short circuit current density (Jsc) value of 31.9 and 33.2 mA·cm-2, which is 9% and 13% relative increase compared to the cell without texturing. Furthermore, the cell with 5 μm pyramids has a higher open-circuit voltage (0.589 V) than the cell with 1 μm pyramids (0.577 V). As a result, the conversion efficiency was improved from 11.4% for the cell without texturing to 12.1% for the cell with 5 μm pyramids.

Characteristics of dual-frequency capacitively coupled SF_6/O_2 plasma and plasma texturing of multi-crystalline silicon

Due to it being environmentally friendly, much attention has been paid to the dry plasma texturing technique serving as an alternative candidate for multicrystalline silicon （mc-Si） surface texturing. In this paper, capacitively coupled plasma （CCP） driven by a dual frequency （DF） of 40.68 MHz and 13.56 MHz is first used for plasma texturing of mc-Si with SF6/O2 gas mixture. Using a hairpin resonant probe and optical emission techniques, DF-CCP characteristics and their influence on mc-silicon surface plasma texturing are investigated at different flow rate ratios, pressures, and radio-frequency （RF） input powers. Experimental results show that suitable plasma texturing of mc-silicon occurs only in a narrow range of plasma parameters, where electron density ne must be larger than 6.3 x 109 cm-3 and the spectral intensity ratio of the F atom to that of the O atom （[F]/[O]） in the plasma must be between 0.8 and 0.3. Out of this range, no cone-like structure is formed on the mc-silicon surface. In our experiments, the lowest reflectance of about 7.3% for mc-silicon surface texturing is obtained at an [F]/[O] of 0.5 and ne of 6.9 × 109 cm-3.

Maskless fabrication of quasi-omnidirectional V-groove solar cells using an alkaline solution-based method

Silicon passivated emitter and rear contact(PERC) solar cells with V-groove texture were fabricated using maskless alkaline solution etching with in-house developed additive. Compared with the traditional pyramid texture, the V-groove texture possesses superior effective minority carrier lifetime, enhanced p–n junction quality and better applied filling factor(FF). In addition, a V-groove texture can greatly reduce the shading area and edge damage of front Ag electrodes when the V-groove direction is parallel to the gridline electrodes. Due to these factors, the V-groove solar cells have a higher efficiency(21.78%) than pyramid solar cells(21.62%). Interestingly, external quantum efficiency(EQE) and reflectance of the V-groove solar cells exhibit a slight decrease when the incident light angle(θ) is increased from 0° to 75°, which confirms the excellent quasi omnidirectionality of the V-groove solar cells. The proposed V-groove solar cell design shows a 2.84% relative enhancement of energy output over traditional pyramid solar cells.

Studies on the polycrystalline silicon/SiO2 stack as front surface field for IBC solar cells by two-dimensional simulations

Interdigitated back contact（IBC） solar cells can achieve a very high efficiency due to its less optical losses. But IBC solar cells demand for high quality passivation of the front surface. In this paper, a polycrystalline silicon/SiO_2 stack structure as front surface field to passivate the front surface of IBC solar cells is proposed. The passivation quality of this structure is investigated by two dimensional simulations. Polycrystalline silicon layer and SiO_2 layer are optimized to get the best passivation quality of the IBC solar cell. Simulation results indicate that the doping level of polycrystalline silicon should be high enough to allow a very thin polycrystalline silicon layer to ensure an effective passivation and small optical losses at the same time. The thickness of SiO_2 should be neither too thin nor too thick, and the optimal thickness is 1.2 nm.Furthermore, the lateral transport properties of electrons are investigated, and the simulation results indicate that a high doping level and conductivity of polycrystalline silicon can improve the lateral transportation of electrons and then the cell performance.

Open-circuit voltage analysis of p-i-n type amorphous silicon solar cells deposited at low temperature

This paper identifies the contributions of p-a-SiC：H layers and i-a-Si：H layers to the open circuit voltage of p-i-n type a-Si：H solar cells deposited at a low temperature of 125℃. We find that poor quality p-a-SiC：H films under regular conditions lead to a restriction of open circuit voltage although the band gap of the i-layer varies widely. A significant improvement in open circuit voltage has been obtained by using high quality p-~SiC：H films optimized at the ＂low-power regime＂ under low silane flow rates and high hydrogen dilution conditions.

Realization of conformal doping on multicrystalline silicon solar cells and black silicon solar cells by plasma immersion ion implantation

Emitted multi-crystalline silicon and black silicon solar cells are conformal doped by ion implantation using the plasma immersion ion implantation （PⅢ） technique. The non-uniformity of emitter doping is lower than 5 %. The secondary ion mass spectrometer profile indicates that the PⅢ technique obtained 100-rim shallow emitter and the emitter depth could be impelled by furnace annealing to 220 nm and 330 nm at 850 ℃ with one and two hours, respectively. Furnace annealing at 850 ℃ could effectively electrically activate the dopants in the silicon. The efficiency of the black silicon solar cell is 14.84% higher than that of the mc-silicon solar cell due to more incident light being absorbed.

Enhanced Photovoltaic Properties for Rear Passivated Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells by Fabricating Boron Doped Local Back Surface Field

In order to enhance the p-type doping concentration in the LBSF, boron was added into the aluminum paste and boron doped local back surface field（B-LBSF） was successfully fabricated in this work. Through boron doping in the LBSF, much higher doping concentration was observed for the B-LBSF over the Al-LBSF. Higher doping concentration in the LBSF is expected to lead to better rear passivation and lower rear contact resistance. Based on one thousand pieces of solar cells for each type, it was found that the rear passivated crystalline silicon solar cells with B-LBSF showed statistical improvement in their photovoltaic properties over those with Al-LBSF.

Research on the optimum hydrogenated silicon thin films for application in solar cells

Hydrogenated silicon （Si：H） thin films for application in solar ceils were deposited by using very high frequency plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition （VHF PECVD） at a substrate temperature of about 170 ℃, The electrical, structural, and optical properties of the films were investigated. The deposited films were then applied as i-layers for p-i-n single junction solar cells. The current-voltage （I - V） characteristics of the cells were measured before and after the light soaking. The results suggest that the films deposited near the transition region have an optimum properties for application in solar cells. The cell with an i-layer prepared near the transition region shows the best stable performance.

Expressions of TGF-β2, bFGF and ICAM-1 in lens epithelial cells of complicated cataract with silicone oil tamponade

AIM： To investigate the expression differences of transforming growth factor-β2（TGF-β2）, basic fibroblast growth factor（b FGF） and intercellular cell-adhesion molecule-1（ICAM-1） in lens epithelial cells（LECs） of complicated cataract with silicone oil tamponade and agerelated cataract. METHODS： Totally 150 eyes of 150 patients（aged 35 to 77y） were investigated, including 75 patients with complicated cataract after silicone oil tamponade and 75 patients with age-related cataract. The central piece of anterior capsules was collected during cataract surgery. TGF-β2, b FGF and ICAM-1 were detected in the 60 specimens of the two groups by immunohistochemistry. The expression levels of the three kinds of messenger ribonucleic acid（m RNA） were determined by real-time quantitative reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction in the 90 specimens of the two groups.RESULTS： TGF-β2 was detected in the cytomembrane and cytoplasm of the LECs and b FGF was detected in the nucleus. ICAM-1 was positive in the cytomembrane of the LECs and the distribution of positive cells was uneven. The m RNA genes expression of the TGF-β2, b FGF and ICAM-1 was significant differences between the two groups and markedly increased in complicated cataract group（P〈0.05）.CONCLUSION： The up-regulated TGF-β2, b FGF and ICAM-1 maybe associate with the occurrence and development of complicated cataract with silicone oil tamponade.

Analysis of Electrical Characteristics of Photovoltaic Single Crystal Silicon Solar Cells at Outdoor Measurements

The electrical performance of a photovoltaic (PV) silicon solar cell is described by its current–voltage (I–V) character-istic curve, which is in turn determined by device and material properties. In this study, an investigation of the performance and device parameters of photovoltaic single crystalline silicon (Si.) solar cell of the construction n+pp++ PESC(Passivatted Emitter Solar Cell) at different conditions of solar irradiance, title angle and mirror boosting effects had been studied. Also the paper reports on the performance data of the Si. cell, using standard I–V characteristic curves to obtain output parameters and to show that there are possible performance degrading defects presents.

Numerical study of mono-crystalline silicon solar cells with passivated emitter and rear contact configuration for the efficiency beyond 24% based on mass production technology

Mono-crystalline silicon solar cells with a passivated emitter rear contact(PERC)configuration have attracted extensive attention from both industry and scientific communities.A record efficiency of 24.06%on p-type silicon wafer and mass production efficiency around 22%have been demonstrated,mainly due to its superior rear side passivation.In this work,the PERC solar cells with a p-type silicon wafer were numerically studied in terms of the surface passivation,quality of silicon wafer and metal electrodes.A rational way to achieve a 24%mass-production efficiency was proposed.Free energy loss analyses were adopted to address the loss sources with respect to the limit efficiency of 29%,which provides a guideline for the design and manufacture of a high-efficiency PERC solar cell.

Review on Metallization Approaches for High-Efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Crystalline silicon(c-Si)heterojunction(HJT)solar cells are one of the promising technologies for next-generation industrial high-efficiency silicon solar cells,and many efforts in transferring this technology to high-volume manufacturing in the photovoltaic(PV)industry are currently ongoing.Metallization is of vital importance to the PV performance and long-term reliability of HJT solar cells.In this review,we summarize the development status of metallization approaches for highefficiency HJT solar cells.For conventional screen printing technology,to avoid the degradation of the passivation properties of the amorphous silicon layer,a low-temperature-cured(<250℃)paste and process are needed.This process,in turn,leads to high line/contact resistances and high paste costs.To improve the conductivity of electrodes and reduce the metallization cost,multi-busbar,fine-line printing,and low-temperature-cured silver-coated copper pastes have been developed.In addition,several potential metallization technologies for HJT solar cells,such as the Smart Wire Contacting Technology,pattern transfer printing,inkjet/FlexTrailprinting,and copper electroplating,are discussed in detail.B ased on the summary,the potential and challenges of these metallization technologies for HJT solar cells are analyzed.

Fabrication of Silicon Carbide Quantum Dots via Chemical-Etching Approach and Fluorescent Imaging for Living Cells

A simple chemical-etching approach is used to prepare the silicon carbide quantum dots (QDs). The raw materials of silicon carbide (SiC) with homogeneous nanoparticles fabricated via self-propagating combustion synthesis are corroded in mixture etchants of nitric and hydrofluoric acid. After sonication and chromatography in the ultra-gravity field for the etched products, aqueous solution with QDs can be obtained. The microstructure evolution of raw particles and optical properties of QDs were measured. Different organophilic groups on the surface like carboxyl, oxygroup, and hyfroxy were produced in the process of etching. Fluorescent labeling and imaging for living cells of Aureobasidium pulluans were investigated. The results indicated that SiC QDs were not cytotoxic and could stably label due to the conjugation between organophilic groups of QDs and specific protein of cells, it can be utilized for fluorescent imaging and tracking cells with in vivo and long-term-distance. Moreover, mechanism and specificity of mark were also analyzed.

Corrective Effect of the Angle of Incidence of the Magnetic Field Intensity on the Performance (Series and Shunt Resistances) of a Bifacial Silicon Solar Cell

This article presents a three-dimensional analysis of the impact of the angle of incidence of the magnetic field intensity on the electrical performance (series resistance, shunt resistance) of a bifacial polycrystalline silicon solar cell. The cell is illuminated simultaneously from both sides. The continuity equation for the excess minority carriers is solved at the emitter and at the depth of the base respectively. The analytical expressions for photocurrent density, photovoltage, series resistance and shunt resistance were deduced. Using these expressions, the values of the series and shunt resistances were extracted for different values of the angle of incidence of the magnetic field intensity. The study shows that as the angle of incidence increases, the slopes of the minority carrier density for the two modes of operation of the solar cell decrease. This is explained by a drop in the accumulation of carriers in the area close to the junction due to the fact that the Lorentz force is unable to drive the carriers towards the lateral surfaces due to the weak action of the magnetic field, which tends to cancel out as the incidence angle increases, and consequently a drop in the open circuit photovoltage. This, in turn, reduces the Lorentz force. These results predict that the p-n junction of the solar cell will not heat up. The study also showed a decrease in series resistance as the incidence angle of the magnetic field intensity increased from 0 rad to π/2 rad and an increase in shunt resistance as the incidence angle increased. His behaviour of the electrical parameters when the angle of incidence of the field from 0 rad to π/2 rad shows that the decreasing magnetic field vector tends to be collinear with the electron trajectory. This allows them to cross the junction and participate in the external current. The best orientation for the Lorentz force is zero, in which case the carriers can move easily towards the junction.

Beyond Lambertian light trapping for large-area silicon solar cells:fabrication methods

Light trapping photonic crystal(PhC)patterns on the surface of Si solar cells provides a novel opportunity to approach the theoretical efficiency limit of 32.3%,for light-to-electrical power conversion with a single junction cell.This is beyond the efficiency limit implied by the Lambertian limit of ray trapping~29%.The interference and slow light effects are harnessed for collecting light even at the long wavelengths near the Si band-gap.We compare two different methods for surface patterning,that can be extended to large area surface patterning:1)laser direct write and 2)step-&-repeat 5×reduction projection lithography.Large area throughput limitations of these methods are compared with the established elec-tron beam lithography(EBL)route,which is conventionally utilised but much slower than the presented methods.Spec-tral characterisation of the PhC light trapping is compared for samples fabricated by different methods.Reflectance of Si etched via laser patterned mask was~7%at visible wavelengths and was comparable with Si patterned via EBL made mask.The later pattern showed a stronger absorbance than the Lambertian limit6.

Improving the UV-light stability of silicon heterojunction solar cells through plasmon-enhanced luminescence downshifting of YVO_(4):Eu^(3+),Bi^(3+)nanophosphors decorated with Ag nanoparticles

The ultraviolet(UV)light stability of silicon heterojunction(SHJ)solar cells should be addressed before large-scale production and applications.Introducing downshifting(DS)nanophosphors on top of solar cells that can convert UV light to visible light may reduce UV-induced degradation(UVID)without sacrificing the power conversion efficiency(PCE).Herein,a novel composite DS nanomaterial composed of YVO_(4):Eu^(3+),Bi^(3+)nanoparticles(NPs)and AgNPs was synthesized and introduced onto the incident light side of industrial SHJ solar cells to achieve UV shielding.The YVO_(4):Eu^(3+),Bi^(3+)NPs and Ag NPs were synthesized via a sol-gel method and a wet chemical reduction method,respectively.Then,a composite structure of the YVO_(4):Eu^(3+),Bi^(3+)NPs decorated with Ag NPs was synthesized by an ultrasonic method.The emission intensities of the YVO_(4):Eu^(3+),Bi^(3+)nanophosphors were significantly enhanced upon decoration with an appropriate amount of~20 nm Ag NPs due to the localized surface plasmon resonance(LSPR)effect.Upon the introduction of LSPR-enhanced downshifting,the SHJ solar cells exhibited an~0.54%relative decrease in PCE degradation under UV irradiation with a cumulative dose of 45 k W h compared to their counterparts,suggesting excellent potential for application in UV-light stability enhancement of solar cells or modules.

Comparing Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Thin Film

Photovoltaics are currently recognized as a top ranking technology among the new energies. Photovoltaics have the potential to eventually make a considerable contribution to the power generation capacity in the world, especially, in the industrialized countries. Good accomplishment has been obtained in the cost reduction of PV systems, for example in 1974, systems cost (100～150) $/W. In 1981, such systems cost less than (10～30) $/W, and now they cost less than 5 $/W. However, more R&D efforts are still necessary, to achieve large-scale cost-effective production of PV systems to make it competitive with diesel generation of electricity,although PV systems have proven to be competitive in rural and remote areas. In this paper, an overview on high efficiency solar cell technologies will be presented.