Fabrication of Nanocrystalline Silicon Solar Cells Without Heating Their Substrates by Laser Processing

To fabricate thin film silicon (Si) solar cells on polyethersulfone (PES) film substrates without heating, pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) and laser annealing have been applied to the formation of the Si films and electrodes. In these Si films, nanocrystalline Si particles are dispersed in an amorphous Si matrix. The number density of the nanocrystalline Si particles and the carrier concentrations can be controlled by the laser fluence during the laser-annealing. During the cell fabrication, no deformation of the substrates was observed