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Ternary and Quaternary Semiconducting Compounds Thin Film Solar Cells

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Thin Film Structures in Energy Applications

Abstract

This chapter deals with solar cells that are based on thin films of ternary and quaternary semiconducting compounds. These ternary and quaternary compounds are derived by an ordered substitution of group IV elements of the periodic table by the elements belonging to nearby groups while maintaining the average number of valence electrons per atom to be four. In case of ternary compounds, there exist two sets of compounds, namely, I-III-VI2 and II-IV-V2. Among the I-III-VI2 compounds, CuInSe2 and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 were considered as potential candidates for absorbers in solar cells. In 2003, CIGS-based solar cells with recorded efficiency of 19.2 % has been reported by NREL. Recently, The Centre for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) has achieved a record of 20.8 % conversion efficiency with a copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film PV cell.

Following the introduction on energy demands and history of solar cells, different generations of solar cells are described along with their working principle. After the discussion on ternary compounds for thin film solar cells, currently considered quaternary compounds I2-II-IV-VI4 for absorbers in thin film solar cells are described.

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Acknowledgements

I thank my students Mr. Kunal J Tiwari and Ms. S. Sivasangari for their help during the preparation of this book chapter.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute, SRM University, Kattankulathur, Chennai, 603 203, Tamil Nadu, India

    P. Malar

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  1. P. Malar
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Correspondence to P. Malar .

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  1. Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Pondicherry University, Kalapet, Pondicherry, India

    Suresh Babu Krishna Moorthy

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Malar, P. (2015). Ternary and Quaternary Semiconducting Compounds Thin Film Solar Cells. In: Babu Krishna Moorthy, S. (eds) Thin Film Structures in Energy Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14774-1_3

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