Amorphous and Microcrystalline Silicon Solar Cells: Modeling, Materials and Device Technology provides a comprehensive overview of materials for application in thin film solar cells. It is the first book that compares experimental and computer-modeling methods, combining the state of the art in technology with the latest insights in device modeling. A wide range of experimental issues are explored, from materials and basic device physics of thin film solar cells to potential mass production facilities for solar panels. The modeling section presents an approach to integrated optical and electrical modeling of complete devices, including optical light trapping, and describes the physical materials parameters related to amorphous silicon that are crucial for successful modeling. The increasing importance of multijunction cells with different bandgap components for thin film silicon cells is reflected in a description of the latest breakthroughs acquired experimentally and by modeling. Concluding chapters describe what can be learned from combined modeling and device fabrication, indicating potential future methods of amorphous silicon solar cell optimization. This book will prove invaluable to researchers in the amorphous and microcrystalline silicon field and the physical and experimental approaches will be of interest to researchers investigating solar cells or other film devices for large area applications.

Amorphous silicon solar cell technology has evolved considerably since the first amorphous silicon solar cells were made at RCA Laboratories in 1974. Scien tists working in a number of laboratories worldwide have developed improved alloys based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon and microcrystalline silicon. Other scientists have developed new methods for growing these thin films while yet others have developed new photovoltaic (PV) device structures with im proved conversion efficiencies. In the last two years, several companies have constructed multi-megawatt manufacturing plants that can produce large-area, multijunction amorphous silicon PV modules. A growing number of people be lieve that thin-film photovoltaics will be integrated into buildings on a large scale in the next few decades and will be able to make a major contribution to the world's energy needs. In this book, Ruud E. I. Schropp and Miro Zeman provide an authoritative overview of the current status of thin film solar cells based on amorphous and microcrystalline silicon. They review the significant developments that have occurred during the evolution of the technology and also discuss the most im portant recent innovations in the deposition of the materials, the understanding of the physics, and the fabrication and modeling of the devices.