Investigations on the growth and non doping impurities distribution in directionally solidified multicrystalline silicon for photovoltaic applications

Abstract

As worldwide energy demand increases conventional energy resources such as fossil fuels will be exhausted within the next century The development and use of alternative energy source is essential to meet the energy demand Solar energy can potentially play an important role in providing most of the heating cooling and electricity needs of the world In the developing countries it is significantly improving living conditions in rural areas The solar cell is considered a major candidate for obtaining energy from the sun since it can convert sunlight directly to electricity with high conversion efficiency It can provide nearly permanent power at low operating cost, and it is virtually free of pollution To date solar cells have been made in many semiconductors using various device configurations and employing single crystal poly crystal and amorphous thin film structures The main requirements for the solar cells are high efficiency low cost and good reliability The potential of silicon wafer based solar cells has been demonstrated by its increasing market share of more than 90 Cost efficiency stability and reliability of the silicon wafer based solar modules resulted in a superior market leadership of this technology The main cost is the crystal substrate and research is focused on reducing the cost of the crystal growth