This book provides a basic understanding of spectroscopic ellipsometry, with a focus on characterization methods of a broad range of solar cell materials/devices, from traditional solar cell materials (Si, CuInGaSe2, and CdTe) to more advanced emerging materials (Cu2ZnSnSe4, organics, and hybrid perovskites), fulfilling a critical need in the photovoltaic community. The book describes optical constants of a variety of semiconductor light absorbers, transparent conductive oxides and metals that are vital for the interpretation of solar cell characteristics and device simulations. It is divided into four parts: fundamental principles of ellipsometry; characterization of solar cell materials/structures; ellipsometry applications including optical simulations of solar cell devices and online monitoring of film processing; and the optical constants of solar cell component layers.

Spectroscopic ellipsometry has been applied to a wide variety of material and device characterizations in solar cell research fields. In particular, device performance analyses using exact optical constants of component layers and direct analyses of complex solar cell structures are unique features of advanced ellipsometry methods. This second volume of Spectroscopic Ellipsometry for Photovoltaics presents various applications of the ellipsometry technique for device analyses, including optical/recombination loss analyses, real-time control and on-line monitoring of solar cell structures, and large-area structural mapping. Furthermore, this book describes the optical constants of 148 solar cell component layers, covering a broad range of materials from semiconductor light absorbers (inorganic, organic and hybrid perovskite semiconductors) to transparent conductive oxides and metals. The tabulated and completely parameterized optical constants described in this book are the most current resource that is vital for device simulations and solar cell structural analyses.

Applications requiring large-area semiconductor coverage rely increasingly on amorphous and heterogeneous silicon materials because they can be deposited at low cost on a variety of substrates. This volume, first published in 1999, covers the range from fundamental research to the device applications of these materials. A special session on medium-range order is featured, and confirms the belief that ordering correlates with the electronic quality of a-Si: H films. Important experimental observations on metastable effects in a-Si: H are also reported, as are devices and processing strategies. Topics include: growth and properties; high-rate deposition; recrystallization, amorphization and porous silicon; ordering and hydrogen; metastability; defects, band tails and transport; heterogeneous materials and devices; thin-film transistors and displays; solar cells; and detectors, imagers and other device