Several techniques have been proposed for kerfless wafering of thin Si wafers, which is one of the most essential techniques for reducing Si material loss in conventional wafering methods to lower cell cost. Proton induced exfoliation is one of promising kerfless techniques due to the simplicity of the process of implantation and cleaving. However, for application to high efficiency solar cells, it is necessary to cope with some problems such as implantation damage removal and texturing of (111) oriented wafers. This study analyzes the end-of-range defects at both kerfless and donor wafers and ion cutting sites. Thermal treatment and isotropic etching processes allow nearly complete removal of implantation damages in the cleaved-thin wafers. Combining laser interference lithography and a reactive ion etch process, a facile nanoscale texturing process for the kerfless thin wafers of a (111) crystal orientation has been developed. We demonstrate that the introduction of nanohole array textures with an optimal design and complete damage removal lead to an improved efficiency of 15.2% based on the kerfless wafer of a 48 μm thickness using the standard architecture of the Al back surface field.

High-entropy alloy (HEA) superconductors—a new class of functional materials—can be utilized stably under extreme conditions, such as in space environments, owing to their high mechanical hardness and excellent irradiation tolerance. However, the feasibility of practical applications of HEA superconductors has not yet been demonstrated because the critical current density (Jc) for HEA superconductors has not yet been adequately characterized. Here, we report the fabrication of high-quality superconducting (SC) thin films of Ta–Nb–Hf–Zr–Ti HEAs via a pulsed laser deposition. The thin films exhibit a large Jc of >1 MA cm−2 at 4.2 K and are therefore favorable for SC devices as well as large-scale applications. In addition, they show extremely robust superconductivity to irradiation-induced disorder controlled by the dose of Kr-ion irradiation. The superconductivity of the HEA films is more than 1000 times more resistant to displacement damage than that of other promising superconductors with technological applications, such as MgB2, Nb3Sn, Fe-based superconductors, and high-Tc cuprate superconductors. These results demonstrate that HEA superconductors have considerable potential for use under extreme conditions, such as in aerospace applications, nuclear fusion reactors, and high-field SC magnets.

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A thin (2 μm) and relatively large area (3 × 3 mm2) diamond membrane was fabricated by cleaving a surface from a single crystal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond wafer (3 × 3 mm2× 300 μm) using a hot implantation and ion-cut method. First, while maintaining the CVD diamond at 400 °C, a damage zone was created at a depth of 2.3 μm underneath the surface by implanting 4 MeV carbon ions into the diamond in order to promote membrane cleavage (hot implantation). According to TEM data, hot implantation reduces the thickness of the implantation damage zone by about a factor of 10 when compared to implanting carbon ions with the CVD diamond at room temperature (RT). In order to recover crystallinity, the implanted sample was then annealed at 850 °C. Next, 380 keV hydrogen ions were implanted into the sample to a depth of 2.3 μm below the surface with the CVD diamond at RT. After annealing at 850 °C, the CVD diamond surface layer was cleaved at the damage-zone due to internal pressure from H2 gas arising from the implanted hydrogen (ion-cut). A thin layer of graphite (∼300 nm) on the cleavage surface, arising from the implanted carbon, was removed by O2 annealing. This technique can potentially be used to produce much larger area membranes of variable thickness.

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