Amorphous silicon solar cell technology has evolved considerably since the first amorphous
silicon solar cells were made at RCA Laboratories in 1974. Scien tists working in a number of
laboratories worldwide have developed improved alloys based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon
and microcrystalline silicon. Other scientists have developed new methods for growing these
thin films while yet others have developed new photovoltaic (PV) device structures with im
proved conversion efficiencies. In the last two years several companies have constructed
multi-megawatt manufacturing plants that can produce large-area multijunction amorphous
silicon PV modules. A growing number of people be lieve that thin-film photovoltaics will be
integrated into buildings on a large scale in the next few decades and will be able to make a
major contribution to the world's energy needs. In this book Ruud E. I. Schropp and Miro Zeman
provide an authoritative overview of the current status of thin film solar cells based on
amorphous and microcrystalline silicon. They review the significant developments that have
occurred during the evolution of the technology and also discuss the most im portant recent
innovations in the deposition of the materials the understanding of the physics and the
fabrication and modeling of the devices.
