Herein, a comparison of industrial silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells formed using p‐type (boron‐ or gallium‐doped) Czochralski‐grown silicon (Cz‐Si) wafers is provided. Standard n‐type SHJ solar cells are also fabricated as a reference. Boron‐doped SHJ solar cells are heavily susceptible to boron–oxygen light‐induced degradation (BO‐LID), with an open‐circuit voltage (VOC) reduction of 100 mV in some cells with starting VOC of >720 mV. While an advanced hydrogenation process (AHP) is sufficient to completely stabilize BO‐LID in some cells, resulting in stable VOC of 724 mV, the impact in reducing BO‐LID is variable. This suggests that an AHP alone may not be a reliable method of reducing BO‐LID in industrial SHJ solar cells. In contrast, SHJ solar cells formed using gallium‐doped wafers exhibit VOC > 730 mV and show no degradation during light‐soaking. Yet, the same AHP treatment for gallium‐doped SHJ cells results in a 0.4%abs increase in the conversion efficiency to 22.6% (VOC of 734 mV). The conversion efficiency of the gallium‐doped SHJ solar cells is still lower than the n‐type reference cells, which is largely due to a reduced fill factor (FF). Further work is required to overcome this FF limitation to facilitate high‐efficiency gallium‐doped SHJ solar cells.

This work presents the results of an investigation of WSe2 thin layers on the Ni film by Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) methods. To determine surface potential, Kelvin probe force gradient microscopy (KPFGM) was used. Dependences of the surface potential and work function on the number of monolayers of the structure are presented. The band structure and type of doping of the WSe2 monolayer on the Ni film were determined. These data can be important for measuring the number of WSe2 layers by KPFGM and for designing nanodevices because the work function and the surface potential have a strong influence on the operation of such devices.

We investigated the formation of nanostructures on the surface of rolled thin platinum foils at the heating and "tension-compression" cycles in ultrahigh vacuum. The surface was characterized by LEED, AES, AFM, optical microscopy and micro Raman spectroscopy (MRS). Quantitative characterization of the surface relief was made by fractal analysis. About 95 % of the Pt foil surface was made by close packed Pt (111) face with unidirectional rippled multi-scale relief. Under the applied tension, changes in the LEED and AFM patterns were observed and it was found that, preceding the formation of the main crack, the surface becomes difractionally disordered with relief fractality turning to an isotropic one. Moreover, at the foil surface, near the clips of the sample holder (about 5 % of the surface area), the surface groups of micro crystals with sizes about 10 µm were observed which were identified by MRS as microdiamonds and diamond-like carbon.

Here, we demonstrate the effectiveness of illuminated annealing using high-intensity light to improve the efficiency of industrial n-type silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells. The application of high intensity laser light during annealing at 200 °C led to efficiency improvements as large as 0.7% abs and final efficiencies as high as 24.5%. This was demonstrated on industrial SHJ solar cells from five different manufacturers, indicating the robust application of this technique. We show that the annealing process with high-intensity light leads to significant efficiency enhancements compared to previous observations using light soaking under 1-sun conditions, meaning the process can be completed in 30 s, rather than hours. The observed enhancements were related to increased V OC and fill factor. If this approach can be tailored to time scales amenable with mass production, the associated efficiency enhancements could drive reductions in the levelized cost of electricity for SHJ solar cells, making them more competitive in the face of existing technologies.

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