No abstract

No abstract

Besides the „classical”︁ inorganic solar cells based on silicon, research on novel solar cell technologies has been intensified in the last years. The focus has been put especially on organic solar cells (OPV). Their industrial production has been made possible only recently.Organic solar cells constitute an alternative to common mono‐ and polycrystalline solar cells as well as the novel thin‐film technologies. Silicon, CIS/CIGS (Copper‐Indium‐Gallium‐Selenide) and Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) are used as semiconductor materials for the last‐mentioned technology, which are largely made up of heavy metals. Highly poisonous and environmentally harmful chemicals are often involved in the production which requires large amounts of energy.

No abstract

The study reports on the structure of thin ternary NiGaxSi2–x silicide layers grown on Si(001) by Ni/Ga codeposition at room temperature followed by subsequent annealing. The influence of both the Ga content and the annealing temperature on the phase formation and orientation of the layers was investigated for the first time. Addition of Ga leads to a decrease of the disilicide formation temperature down to less than 500 °C. Island formation is observed for the Ga content of 0.17 after annealing above 900 °C. The NiSi2‐xGax islands grow with a NiSi2–xGax(110) ‖ Si(001) texture. In contrast, closed epitaxial NiSi2–xGax layers of A‐type are obtained for the Ga content of 0.28 after annealing at 900 °C. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)