Research Opportunities in Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaics for the 21st Century: Preprint

Crystalline silicon continues to be the dominant semiconductor material used for terrestrial photovoltaics. This paper discusses the scientific issues associated with silicon photovoltaics processing and cell design that may yield cell and module performance improvements, both evolutionary and revolutionary in nature. We first survey critical issues in ''thick'' crystalline silicon photovoltaics, including novel separations processes for impurity removal, impurity and defect fundamentals, interface passivation, the role of hydrogen, and high-throughput, kinetically-limited materials processing. Second, we outline emerging opportunities for creation of a very different ''thin-layer'' silicon cell structure, including the scientific issues and engineering challenges associated with thin-layer silicon processing and cell design