Symposium EN01—Silicon for Photovoltaics

Silicon continues to dominate the photovoltaic market with increasing efficiencies and lower costs combined with excellent reliability. Further advancement of silicon photovoltaics will be driven by the ability to develop concepts at the cell, module and system level that further increase yield, reduce cost and extend reliability. To maintain this trend, sustained material research in key and emerging areas along the value chain is vital, including: (i) new silicon-enabled absorbers as well as the understanding and mitigation of bulk absorber material defects; (ii) carrier-selective, passivating contact layers and stacks for high voltage devices; (iii) high efficiency device concepts including, but not limited to, photon management, multi-junction solar cells and new metallization schemes; and (iv) silicon PV module and system related material research.

This symposium is focused on these themes, and especially welcomes scientific and technological contributions aimed at (a) increasing the conversion efficiency and lowering the costs, (b) involving cross-cutting developments from other technologies, (c) addressing material requirements for PV system integration, and (d) modeling and characterization aligned with the aforementioned topics.

• Absorber: We are interested in the development of new silicon-enabled absorbers that could offer higher absorption and/or lower Auger recombination. This also extends to alternative absorber fabrication methods such as layer separation/transfer, epitaxial wafer processes, and solid-/liquid-induced crystallization aimed at kerfless silicon or ultra-thin silicon absorbers. Research related to bulk Si defects analysis, gettering, bulk hydrogenation, and lifetime degradation / mitigation are also en
• Carrier-selective passivating contacts: We welcome contributions discussing fundamental, underlying principles of carrier-selective contacts (i.e. surface passivation, band alignment/bending, Fermi-level pinning at interfaces), innovative deposition techniques and doping methods, contact hydrogenation, new materials (including transparent electrodes and doping-free approaches) and new functionalities (temperature stability, transparency, patterned depositions).
• High efficiency device concepts: We seek contributions aimed at improved solar cell performance, including the development of novel photon management strategies (e.g. advanced surface textures, up- and down conversion), multi-junction architectures (e.g. III-V/Si or Perovskite/Si tandems), new metallization technologies (especially to passivated contacts), and back-contacted architectures.
• Module: We invite contributions dealing with module-related material aspects ranging from the interconnection and encapsulation of silicon solar cells to optical design of silicon modules (e.g. new anti-reflective coatings, albedo for bifacial modules).
• System: We also invite contributions focusing on the integration of Si modules into systems (e.g. PV-battery interface, building & vehicle integration).
• Silicon and silicon-enabled photovoltaic devices, such as all-silicon tandem solar cells, X-on-silicon solar cells, new device architectures, bifacial cells, silicon nanowires/nanocrystals solar cells, and thin-film silicon solar cells. Absorber, doping, contact, passivation, transparent conductor, and metallization materials for silicon (or tandem) photovoltaic devices.
• Silicon film materials such as amorphous silicon, nanocrystalline silicon, silicon carbides and oxides, epitaxial silicon and epitaxial layers on silicon, silicon-germanium, barium-disilicide, silicon clathrates and silicon-(carbon-)tin alloys. Methods of making and/or doping silicon including (PE)CVD, kerfless wafering, laser- and metal-induced crystallization, and implantation.
• Characterization and modeling of the structural, mechanical, electrical, and optical properties of silicon-related materials and devices. Material focused techno-economic and life-cycle analysis of emerging concepts as well as recycling aspects of PV materials.

• Andrew Blakers (Australian National University, Australia)
• Yifeng Chen (Trina Solar, USA)
• Chris Deline (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)
• Stefan Glunz (Fraunhofer ISE, Germany)
• Erwin Kessels (Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands)
• Radovan Kopecek (ISC Konstanz, Germany)
• Sarah Kurtz (University of California, Merced, USA)
• Agata Lachowicz (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology, Switzerland)
• John Murphy (University of Warwick, United Kingdom)
• Bonna Newman (Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, Netherlands)
• Uwe Rau (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany)
• Cassidy Sainsbury (Sinton Instruments, USA)
• Adele Tamboli (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA)
• Loic Tous (imec, Belgium)