Post-annealing Effect on Optical and Electronic Properties of Thermally Evaporated MoO Thin Films as Hole-Selective Contacts for p-Si Solar Cells.

Owing to its large work function, MoO has been widely used for hole-selective contact in both thin film and crystalline silicon solar cells. In this work, thermally evaporated MoO films are employed on the rear sides of p-type crystalline silicon (p-Si) solar cells, where the optical and electronic properties of the MoO films as well as the corresponding device performances are investigated as a function of post-annealing treatment. The MoO film annealed at 100 °C shows the highest work function and proves the best hole selectivity based on the results of energy band simulation and contact resistivity measurements.

Light Propagation in Flexible Thin-Film Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells with Nanotextured Metal Back Reflectors.

Nanostructured metal back reflectors (BRs) are playing an important role in thin-film solar cells, which facilitates an increased optical path length within a relatively thin absorbing layer. In this study, three nanotextured plasmonic metal (copper, gold, and silver) BRs underneath flexible thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells are systematically investigated. The solar cells with BRs demonstrate an excellent light harvesting capability in the long-wavelength region.

High Weight-Specific Power Density of Thin-Film Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells on Graphene Papers.

Flexible thin-film solar cells with high weight-specific power density are highly desired in the emerging portable/wearable electronic devices, solar-powered vehicles, etc. The conventional flexible metallic or plastic substrates are encountered either overweight or thermal and mechanical mismatch with deposited films. In this work, we proposed a novel substrate for flexible solar cells based on graphene paper, which possesses the advantages of being lightweight and having a high-temperature tolerance and high mechanical flexibility.