A new type of amorphous silicon photovoltaic cell generating more than 2.0 V

Abstract

A new type of plasma-deposited amorphous silicon photovoltaic cell having a horizontally multilayered p-i-n unit-cell structure has been developed. The open-circuit voltage Voc is nearly proportional to the number of repetitions of the p-i-n unit cell. Almost-constant energy-conversion efficiencies of around 4% have been obtained with Voc ranging from 0.6 to 2.4 V by applying a simple optimum design rule to the cell-construction parameters.