Solar Energy News

Advanced Solar Cells
A variety of advanced approaches to solar cells are under investigation. Dye-sensitized solar cells use a dye-impregnated layer of titanium dioxide to generate a voltage, rather than the semiconducting materials used in most solar cells. Because titanium dioxide is relatively inexpensive, they offer the potential […]

Fabricating Solar Cells and Modules
A variety of technical issues are involved in the fabrication of solar cells. The semiconductor material is often doped with impurities such as boron or phosphorus to tweak the frequencies of light that it responds to. Other treatments include surface passivation of the material and application of antireflection coatings. The encapsulation […]

High-Efficiency Multijunction Devices
Multijunction devices stack individual solar cells on top of each other to maximize the capture and conversion of solar energy. The top layer (or junction) captures the highest-energy light and passes the rest on to be absorbed by the lower layers. Much of the work in this area uses gallium arsenide and its […]