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In condensed matter physics and materials science, an amorphous or non-crystalline solid is a solid that lacks the long-range order that is characteristic of a crystal. In some older books, the term has been used synonymously with glass. Nowadays, "glassy solid" or "amorphous solid" is considered to be the overarching concept, and glass the more special case: Glass is an amorphous solid stabilized below its glass transition temperature. Polymers are often amorphous. Other types of amorphous solids include gels, thin films, and nanostructured materials such as glass.
Photoconductivity is an optical and electrical phenomenon in which a material becomes more electrically conductive due to the absorption of electromagnetic radiation such as visible light, ultraviolet light, infrared light, or gamma radiation.
In the 19th century, it was observed that the sunlight striking certain materials generates detectable electric current - the photoelectric effect. This discovery has laid the foundation of solar cells. Solar cells have gone on to be used in many applications. They have historically been used in situations where electrical power from the grid was unavailable.
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electrical device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. It is a form of photoelectric cell, defined as a device whose electrical characteristics, such as current, voltage, or resistance, vary when exposed to light. Individual solar cell devices are often the electrical building blocks of photovoltaic modules, known colloquially as solar panels. The common single junction silicon solar cell can produce a maximum open-circuit voltage of approximately 0.5 to 0.6 volts.
A protocrystalline phase is a distinct phase occurring during crystal growth which evolves into a microcrystalline form. The term is typically associated with silicon films in optical applications such as solar cells.
The Staebler–Wronski Effect (SWE) refers to light-induced metastable changes in the properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon.
The artificial word micromorph is a combination of the words MICROcrystalline and aMORPHous. It is used for a type of silicon based multijunction thin-film solar cell.
A thin-film solar cell is a second generation solar cell that is made by depositing one or more thin layers, or thin film (TF) of photovoltaic material on a substrate, such as glass, plastic or metal. Thin-film solar cells are commercially used in several technologies, including cadmium telluride (CdTe), copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), and amorphous thin-film silicon.
Raphael Tsu is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and currently serves as a Distinguished Professor of electrical engineering at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC.
A plasmonic-enhanced solar cell, commonly referred to simply as plasmonic solar cell, is a type of solar cell that converts light into electricity with the assistance of plasmons, but where the photovoltaic effect occurs in another material.
Crystalline silicon (c-Si) is the crystalline forms of silicon, either polycrystalline silicon, or monocrystalline silicon. Crystalline silicon is the dominant semiconducting material used in photovoltaic technology for the production of solar cells. These cells are assembled into solar panels as part of a photovoltaic system to generate solar power from sunlight.
Dr. Christopher R. Wronski was an electrical engineer and Professor Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University, noted for his pioneering research in photovoltaic cells including discovery of amorphous silicon solar cell and the Staebler–Wronski effect.
Solar cell efficiency refers to the portion of energy in the form of sunlight that can be converted via photovoltaics into electricity by the solar cell.
Joshua M. Pearce is an academic engineer at Michigan Tech known for his work on protocrystallinity, photovoltaic technology, open-source-appropriate technology, and open-source hardware including RepRap 3D printers.
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is the non-crystalline form of silicon used for solar cells and thin-film transistors in LCDs.
Pauls Stradiņš Jr. is a physicist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, and a foreign member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences.
Subhendu Guha is an Indian American photovoltaic scientist who invented flexible Solar shingles. He is known for his pioneering work in Amorphous silicon and Nanocrystalline silicon. In 1998 Dr Guha invented flexible solar cells that can be directly applied to residential roof tops.
Light soaking refers to the change in power output of solar cells which can be measured after illumination. This can either be an increase or decrease, depending on the type of solar cell. The cause of this effect and the consequences on efficiency varies per type of solar cell. Light soaking can generally cause either metastable electrical or structural effects. Electrical effects can vary the efficiency depending on illumination, electrical bias and temperature, where structural effects actually changes the structure of the material and performance is often permanently altered.
A bifacial solar cell (BSC) is a photovoltaic solar cell that can produce electrical energy when illuminated on both its surfaces, front or rear. Instead, monofacial solar cells only produce electrical energy when photons impinge on their front side. Efficiency of bifacial solar cells, defined as the ratio of incident luminous power to generated electrical power, is measured independently for the front and rear surfaces under one or several suns. The bifaciality factor (%) is defined as the ratio of rear efficiency in relation to the front efficiency subject to the same irradiance.
Sarah R. Kurtz is an American materials scientist known for her research on solar energy and photovoltaics, including the application of multi-junction solar cells in robotic spacecraft. Formerly a research fellow at the National Center for Photovoltaics and principal scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, she is a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of California, Merced.
References
- 1 2 Staebler, D. L. (August 1982). "Stability of Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells". IEEE Transactions on Reliability. R-31 (3): 281–284. Bibcode:1982ITR....31..281S. doi:10.1109/TR.1982.5221338.
- ↑ "Nanergy Corporation (OTC: NNGY)". BridgeIR. Archived from the original on 2011-12-03. Retrieved 2011-05-07.CS1 maint: discouraged parameter (link)
- ↑ Staebler, D. L.; Wronski, C. R. (June 1980). "Optically induced conductivity changes in discharge-produced hydrogenated amorphous silicon". Journal of Applied Physics. 51: 3262–3268. Bibcode:1980JAP....51.3262S. doi:10.1063/1.328084.
- ↑ Perlin, John (1999). From space to earth : the story of solar electricity. Harvard University Press. p. 175. ISBN 0-674-01013-2.