Effects of nanostructure and defect states in solar photovoltaic materials

世界需要廉价、可靠和可持续的能源。太阳能光伏技术将太阳光直接转化为电能，提供了一种很有前途的能源。这项研究计划旨在加强表征和分析技术，以提高太阳能光伏电池的性能。在这项研究计划中，太阳能电池的效率将使用一种新颖和系统的方法来提高。首先，本程序将量化沉积条件对氮化铟(InGaN)薄膜和混合相非晶纳米晶硅(a-Si：H和nc-Si：H)半导体薄膜的质量、缺陷态密度、类型和分布的影响。短期目标是i)创建InGaN的沉积相图，ii)将材料的微结构与缺陷态密度和类型相耦合，以及iii)用混合相材料制造的原晶硅太阳电池的所有层的完整表征。然后，这些关于材料特性的新信息将被长期用于开发优化的光伏设备，以克服这些材料家族技术开发中的既定障碍。

The world requires inexpensive, reliable, and sustainable energy sources. Solar photovoltaic technology, which converts sunlight directly into electricity, provides a promising source. This research program aims to enhance characterization and analysis techniques to improve the performance of solar photovoltaic cells. In this research program solar cell efficiencies will be increased using a novel and systematic approach. First, this program will quantify the effects of deposition conditions on the quality, defect state density, type and distribution in thin semiconductor films of indium gallium nitride (InGaN) films and mixed phase amorphous and nanocrystalline silicon (a-Si:H and nc-Si:H). In the short-term the objectives are to i) create deposition phase diagrams for the InGaN, ii) couple the microstructure of the materials to defect state densities and types, and iii) complete characterization of all layers of a protocrystalline Si solar cell fabricated with mixed phase materials. Then this new information about the material properties will be used in the long-term to develop optimized photovoltaic devices that overcome established obstacles in the technical development of each of these material families.