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Physics
Amorphous Silicon
Solar PV Materials:
Crystalline & Polycrystalline Silicon
• Advantages:
– High Efficiency (14-22%)
– Established technology
(The leader)
– Stable
• Disadvantages:
– Expensive production
– Low absorption coefficient
– Large amount of highly
purified feedstock
Amorphous Silicon
Advantages:
• High absorption (don’t need a lot
of material)
• Established technology
• Ease of integration into buildings
• Excellent ecological balance
sheet
• Cheaper than the glass, metal, or
plastic you deposit it on
Disadvantages:
• Only moderate stabilized efficiency 7-
10%
• Instability- It degrades when light hits it
– Now degraded steady state
How do they work?
The physics
view
Band Theory
• There are 3 types of
materials in Band
Ef Theory, which are
differentiated by their
Ef Eg electronic structure:
Ef
– insulators,
– conductors, and
Metal Insulator Semiconductor – semiconductors.
Energy Bands in a
Semiconductor
• Conducti
on Band
– Ec –
empty
• Valence
Band – Ev
– full of
electrons
3 Types of
Semiconductors
1. Intrinsic
2. n-type
3. p-type
Vbi Vbi
Ef Ef
Schottky Barriers and
Heterojunctions
Semiconductor
Junctions
• All the junctions contain strong electric field
• How does the electric field occur?
– When two semiconductors come into contact,
electrons near interface from n-type, transfer
over to p-type, leaving a positively charged area
– Holes from p-type by interface transfer over to n-
type leaving a negatively charged area.
– Because electrons and holes are swapped, a
middle potential barrier with no mobile charges,
is formed.
– This potential barrier created does not let any
more electrons or holes flow through.
• Electric field pulls electrons and holes in
opposite directions.
Barrier Changes
• Equilibrium means there
is no net current
• Reduced barrier height is
called forward bias
(positive voltage applied to
p-side)
– Result- increases current
through diode
• Increased barrier height is
called reverse bias.
– Result- decreases current to a
very small amount..
Electric Currents in p-n
Junction Under External Bias
• Antireflection
coating (ARC) is
used to cover the
cell to minimize
light reflection from
top surface.
• ARC is made with
thin layer of
dielectric material.
Different Types of
Photovoltaic Solar Cells
Diffusion
Drift
Excitonic
Diffusion
• Dye molecule
– electron hole pair
splits because it
hits the dye
– the electron shifts
over to the electric
conductor and the
hole shifts to the
hole conductor
Power
Losses in
Solar
Cells
Recombination
• Opposite of carrier generation,
where electron-hole pair is
annihilated
• Most common at:
– impurities
– defects of crystal structure
– surface of semiconductor
• Reducing both voltage and current
Series Resistance
Silver
Stainless Steel Substrate