The energy issue has been gaining a lot of attention in many countries in recent years. Among the kinds of energies, the solar energy is one of the most interesting topics of them. In addition to the fabrication process and raw material, another focal point aims at solar concentrator. This paper shows a new and easy way to increase the solar energy efficiency. We utilize the micro-optics principle to design and fabricate a microlens array of the solar concentrator. With this concentrator, it can enhance the optical absorption on the solar cell. The microlens array concentrator (MLA-concentrator) is different from the conventional concentrator. The MLA-concentrator does not need any electric equipment to follow the sunlight, and it is easy to manufacture. The size is smaller than conventional concentrator, especially. The MLA-concentrator can decrease the reflection of light at oblique angles and increases the second reflection at the interface between concentrator and solar cell, which makes the sunlight uniform. It also has an interesting characteristic which is the pantoscopic incidence. This new-type MLA-concentrator is fabricated by using LIGA-like process, and then it is integrated to the solar cell for electricity generation. Most important, this kind of structure can be combined with all kinds of solar cell. The solar cell with the MLA- concentrator adds the total watt 3.96% in all angle.

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One way of reducing the cost of crystalline silicon solar cell fabrication is by increasing the conversion efficiency of the device. However, most high efficiency solar cell designs require more complex fabrication methods that also increase the fabrication cost. Photolithography is an example of such an indispensable but costly process. The most common use for photolithography in solar cell fabrication is for dielectric patterning. In this thesis, inkjet printing is proposed as an alternative method for dielectric patterning in solar cell fabrication. There are two inkjet printing methods developed in this thesis. The indirect inkjet patterning method involves the deposition of a suitable plasticiser droplet onto an intermediate resin coating layer on top of the dielectric surface. Diethylene glycol and novolac resin are used as the plasticiser and coating layer respectively. The plasticiser changes the permeability of the affected region of the resin such that it becomes permeable to liquid dielectric etchants. When the resin layer is removed, the printed pattern is transferred to the dielectric layer. The optimised process produces round openings with diameters as small as 30-35 μm and continuous line patterns with width as narrow as 40-50 μm. The direct inkjet patterning method involves the deposition of liquid phosphorus dopant sources onto both silicon and dielectric surfaces. Two types of phosphorus sources are used: phosphoric acid and specially-formulated dopant sources. Narrow lines as wide as 15-20 μm are produced after appropriate surface treatments on both silicon and dielectric surfaces. Using this method, a process that simultaneously pattern the dielectric layer and diffuse the silicon underneath is developed. Various high efficiency solar cell structures such as selective emitter, localised contacts, surface texturing and edge isolation are demonstrated using the indirect inkjet patterning method. Both inkjet patterning methods are then used in the fabrication of a selective emitter solar cell. Fill factors in the range of 0.79-0.80 are shown to be achievable with both patterning methods, thus indicating the high quality metal-silicon contacts formed by these inkjet techniques.

Kyoto University (京都大学) / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(工学) / 甲第14168号 / 工博第3002号 / 新制||工||1445(附属図書館) / 26474 / UT51-2008-N485 / 京都大学大学院工学研究科分子工学専攻 / (主査)教授 今堀 博, 教授 田中 庸裕, 教授 渡辺 宏 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当

Bulk heterojunction (BHJ) devices represent a very versatile family of organic cells for both the fields of solar energy conversion and photodetection. Organic photovoltaics (OPV) are an attractive alternative to their silicon-based counterparts because of their potential for low-cost roll-to-roll printing, and their intended application in light-weight mechanically conformable devices and in window-type semi-transparent PV modules. Of all proposed OPV candidates, polymer donor with different absorption range are especially promising when used in conjunction with complementary absorbing acceptor materials, like fullerene derivatives (PCBM), conjugated molecules or polymers, achieving nowadays power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) in the range of 10-13% and being a step closer to practical applications. Among the photodetectors (PD), low band gap polymer blended with PCBM decked out the attention, given their extraordinary range of detection from UV to IR and high detectivity values reached so far, compared to the inorganic devices. Since the research has been focused on the enhancement of those numbers for an effective commercialization of organic cells, the topic of the following thesis has been centered on the synthesis of different polymer structures with diverse absorption ranges, used as donor or acceptor, with emphasis on performance in various BHJ devices either for solar cells and photodetectors. In the first part, two new wide band gap polymers, used as donor material in BHJ devices blended with fullerene and small molecule acceptors, are presented. The PBDT_2FT and PBDTT_2FT have shown nice efficiencies from 7% to 9.8%. The device results are implemented with a morphology study and a specific application in a semi-transparent tandem device, reaching a record PCE of 5.4% for average level of transparency of 48%. In another section two new low band gap polymers (Eopt~ 1.26 eV) named DTP_2FBT and (Eopt~ 1.1 eV) named BDTT_BTQ are presented. While the DTP based one resulted to be an optimal candidate for future tandem solar cell application, the other one has been applied for a competitive PD. At last, a comparative study displaying two new acceptor polymers based on modified Isoindigo motifs named PIID(CO)_2FT and PIID(CO)_BTIA brought some prospective for future investigations on fullerene free OSC.

The experiment divided into two parts. One is silicon solar cell process. The other is InGaN solar cell process. Borosilicafilm solution spin onto the n-type silicon (111) substrate and spread through the high-temperature furnace tube to form a p-n junction silicon solar cell. Then, evaporate top and rear contact by electron beam evaporation system. InGaN p-i-n structure solar cell grows on sapphire substrate by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy system (PA-MBE) and its process is by repeated photolithography, inductive coupled plasma etching and wet etching. In the device fabrication process, the first is defining the sample size(mesa). Second, etched to the n-type GaN layer, and then coated metal as electrode. Finally, we get the device. In the measurement, the measurement of I-V curve of samples in the light by solar simulator of AM1.5 G light source observe open circuit voltage, short circuit current, fill factor, and efficiency. In addition, we measure the external quantum efficiency of the samples by IPCE and observe the photoelectric conversion efficiency of samples at different wavelength. Observed the sample quality and the indium composition of InGaN layer by XRD. We observe the InGaN band gap shift by variable-temperature photoluminescence spectra.

Excitonic photovoltaic devices, including organic, hybrid organic/inorganic, and dye-sensitized solar cells, are attractive alternatives to conventional inorganic solar cells due to their potential for low cost and low temperature solution-based processing on flexible substrates in large scale. Though encouraging, they are currently limited by the efficiency from not yet optimized structural and material parameters and poor overall knowledge regarding the fundamental details. This dissertation aims to achieve improved performance of hybrid solar cells by enhancing material property and designing new device architecture. The study begins with the addition of XD-grade single-walled carbon nanotube (XDSWNT) into poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) to improve the current density. By having a weight ratio of XDSWNT and P3HT equaled to 0.1:1, short-circuit current was quadrupled from 0.12 mA cm-2 to 0.48 mA cm-2 and solar cell efficiency was tripled from 0.023% to 0.07%, compared to devices with pure P3HT as a hole transport material. Secondly, a significant improvement in device efficiency with 250 nm long ZnO nanorod arrays as photoanodes has been achieved by filling the interstitial voids of the nanorod arrays with ZnO nanoparticles. The overall power conversion efficiency increased from 0.13% for a nanorod-only device to 0.34% for a device with combined nanoparticles and nanorod arrays. The higher device efficiency in solid-state DSSCs with hybrid nanorod/nanoparticle photoanodes is originated from both large surface area provided by nanoparticles for dye adsorption and efficient charge transport provided by the nanorod arrays to reduce the recombinations of photogenerated carriers. Followed by the novel layer-by-layer self-assembly deposition process, the hybrid photoanode study was extended to the longer ZnO nanorod arrays. The best performance, 0.64%, was achieved when the thickness of the photoanodes equaled to 1.2 ?m. Finally, the photovoltaic devices were modified by adding ZnO nanoarpticles into P3HT to increase interfacial area between ZnO and P3HT. The efficiency was enhanced from 0.18% to 0.45% when the ZnO nanorod arrays were 625 nm in length. Our successful design of the device morphology significantly contributes to the performance of solid-state hybrid solar cells.

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Unsustainable energy sources are running out and global warming is getting worse. Therefore the need for renewable energy sources is growing. Solar cells are a popular options used as an energy source. Most popular are the inorganic photovoltaic cells. With their high efficiency and long lifetime, they make a very good energy source. Unfortunately the costs for inorganic solar cells are rather high. Organic solar cells can make a good replacement for inorganic photovoltaic. They are easy to make, light and rather cheap. In this thesis, the morphology of a model system of the active layer of organic solar cells will be discussed, using dip coating as well as spin coating as a technique to prepare the films. The films consist of a blend of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl) and [6,6]-phenyl C61-butyric acid methyl ester in different ratios and different solvents. The films that were made were prepared by spin coating or dip coating a glass substrate. After analysing the samples using atomic force microscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and absorption spectroscopy it was clear that the morphology, as well as the position of the polymer chains can be influenced by using different dipping speeds, ratios or solvents.