Thin-Film Solar Cells

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-XV

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2. Background and Motivation for Thin-Film Solar-Cell Development

   • Yoshihiro Hamakawa

   Pages 1-14

3. Recent Advances and Future Opportunities for Thin-Film Solar Cells

   • Satyen K. Deb

   Pages 15-42

4. Electrical and Optical Properties of Amorphous Silicon and Its Alloys

   • Hiroaki Okamoto

   Pages 43-68

5. Preparation and Properties of Nanocrystalline Silicon

   • Michio Kondo, Akihisa Matsuda

   Pages 69-89

6. Key Issues for the Efficiency Improvement of Silicon-Based Stacked Solar Cells

   • Yoshihiro Hamakawa

   Pages 90-104

7. Development of Amorphous-Silicon Single-Junction Solar Cells and Their Application Systems

   • Katsuhiko Nomoto, Takashi Tomita

   Pages 105-120

8. Production of a-Si:H/ a-SiGe:H/ a-SiGe:H Stacked Solar-Cell Modules and Their Applications

   • Keishi Saito, Tomonori Nishimoto, Ryo Hayashi, Kimitoshi Fukae, Kyosuke Ogawa

   Pages 121-138

9. Low-Temperature Fabrication of Nanocrystalline-Silicon Solar Cells

   • Michio Kondo, Akihisa Matsuda

   Pages 139-149

10. Mass Production of Large-Area Integrated Thin-Film Silicon Solar-Cell Module

    • Yoshihisa Tawada, H. Yamagishi, K. Yamamoto

    Pages 150-162

11. Properties of Chalcopyrite-Based Materials and Film Deposition for Thin-Film Solar Cells

    • Hans-Werner Schock

    Pages 163-182

12. Development of Cu(InGa)Se2 Thin-Film Solar Cells

    • Makoto Konagai, Katsumi Kushiya

    Pages 183-210

13. Expanding Thin-Film Solar PV System Applications

    • Hirosato Yagi, Makoto Tanaka, Shoichi Nakano

    Pages 211-230

14. Future Prospects for Photovoltaic Technologies in Japan

    • Nobuaki Mori, Toshihisa Masuda

    Pages 231-240

15. Back Matter

    Pages 241-244

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The development of clean energy resources as alternatives to oiI has become one of the most important challenges for modern science and technology. The obvious motivation for these efforts is to reduce the air polIution resulting from the mass consumption of fossil fuels and to protect the ecological cycles of the biosystems on Earth. Analyses of future energy usage envision that the energy structure in the 21st century will be characterized as a "Best Mix Age" involving different renewable energy forms. Among the wide variety of renewable energy projects in progress, photo­ voltaics is the most promising as a future energy technology. It is pollution­ free and abundantly available everywhere in the world, even in space, and can also operate with diffuse light. However, a major barrier impeding the devel­ opment of large-scale bulk power applications of photovoltaic systems is the high price of solar cell modules. Therefore, reduction of the costs of solar celIs is of prime importance. To achieve this objective, tremendous R&D efforts have been made over the past two decades in a wide variety of technical fields ranging from solar-cell materials, cell structure, and mass production pro­ cesses to the photovoltaic systems themselves. As the result, about an order of magnitude cost reduction has been achieved in the past 10 years.

• Semiconductor
• Solar Energy
• Technologie
• Thin Films
• design
• development
• environment
• optical properties
• photovoltaics
• physics
• production
• semiconductors
• solar cell
• technology
• thin film

• Department of Photonics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu Shiga, Japan

  Yoshihiro Hamakawa

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