High-efficiency ultrathin crystalline silicon solar cells

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
The climate change associated with burning fossil fuels as dominant energy resource has been a significant concern. Solar photovoltaics (PV) is the dominant type of renewable and eco-friendly energy resource to alleviate this problem. Crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV has been the dominant type of solar cell with more than 90% of the global PV market at the end of 2017, because of its low-cost, good stability and well-developed processing technology. To continue reducing the price of solar modules, ultrathin c-Si solar cells have been investigated: they are a feasible pathway to continue "price scaling" by effectively reducing the c-Si material consumption. However, the performance of ultrathin c-Si cells is constrained by two physical limitations: poor light absorption and contact recombination. To achieve the optimal efficiency from ultrathin c-Si cells, the cells must be designed to overcome these limitations. This dissertation provides comprehensive experimental strategies to overcome these two performance limitations of ultrathin c-Si solar cells. The main part of this dissertation concludes with the characterization of the "free-standing", ultrathin c-Si cell integrated with carrier-selective contacts and light trapping structures. These cells show very consistent performance before and after being released from the substrate. These findings show the capability of ultrathin c-Si technology to not only reduce the material cost, but also maintain high efficiency.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource
Extent 1 online resource.
Place California
Place [Stanford, California]
Publisher [Stanford University]
Copyright date 2018; ©2018
Publication date 2018; 2018
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Author Xue, Muyu
Degree supervisor Harris, J. S. (James Stewart), 1942-
Degree supervisor McIntyre, Paul Cameron
Thesis advisor Harris, J. S. (James Stewart), 1942-
Thesis advisor McIntyre, Paul Cameron
Thesis advisor Kamins, Theodore I
Degree committee member Kamins, Theodore I
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Subjects

Genre Theses
Genre Text

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Muyu Xue.
Note Submitted to the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
Thesis Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2018.
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2018 by Muyu Xue

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