Solid state laser applications in photovoltaics manufacturing

Laser processing of TiO2 films for dye solar cells: a thermal, sintering, throughput and embodied energy investigation

“…Large scale industrial production of DSCs and modules brings up some interesting scientific and technological challenges including the design and set‐up of reliable, low cost, highly automated and energetically efficient fabrication processes . Raster Scanning Laser System (RSLS) is a processing tool that can be helpful in enabling local, highly automated, non‐contact, high precision and energetically favourable manufacturing , gaining an ever stronger foothold in a wide variety of industrial sectors (including thin film photovoltaics and plastic electronics) .…”

Laser Processing in the Manufacture of Dye‐Sensitized and Perovskite Solar Cell Technologies

“…Two types of lasers, that is, solid‐state lasers and gas lasers, are typically adopted for this aim, with the former usually based on Nd:YAG crystals emitting at the fundamental wavelength of 1064 nm, or even at the higher third harmonic in the UV (355 nm), owing to nonlinear optical crystals. Other laser systems emitting mainly in the UV or IR regions are also used …”

Optimized scribing of TCO layers on glass by selective femtosecond laser ablation

“…These nanosecond pulses cause formation of extended heat-affected zones (HAZ) in the layer materials during each scribe processing, no matter how narrow the focused beam is. Therefore, the zone being inactive with respect to charge separation typically reaches a width of 100 µm or more, because the scribes of the subsequent layer have to be clearly separated from the previous scribes to guarantee electrical functionality [2]. In contrast, ultrashort pulses which work in the real "cold ablation" range (< 1 ps) allow for a scribing of much narrower trenches without HAZ [3] when the processing is done not too far above the ablation threshold [4].…”