|
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is the non-crystalline form of silicon used for solar cells and thin-film transistors in LCD displays. Used as semiconductor material for a-Si solar cells, or thin-film silicon solar cells, it is deposited in thin films onto a variety of flexible substrates, such as glass, metal and plastic. Amorphous silicon cells generally feature low efficiency, but are one of the most environmentally friendly photovoltaic technologies, since they do not use any toxic heavy metals such as cadmium or lead. As a second-generation thin-film solar cell technology, amorphous silicon was once expected to become a major contributor in the fast-growing worldwide photovoltaic market, but has since lost its significance due to strong competition from conventional crystalline silicon cells and other thin-film technologies such as CdTe and CIGS. Amorphous silicon differs from other allotropic variations, such as monocrystalline silicon—a single crystal, and polycrystalline silicon, that consists of small grains, also known as crystallites. == Description == Silicon is a fourfold coordinated atom that is normally tetrahedrally bonded to four neighboring silicon atoms. In crystalline silicon (c-Si) this tetrahedral structure continues over a large range, thus forming a well-ordered crystal lattice. In amorphous silicon this long range order is not present. Rather, the atoms form a continuous random network. Moreover, not all the atoms within amorphous silicon are fourfold coordinated. Due to the disordered nature of the material some atoms have a dangling bond. Physically, these dangling bonds represent defects in the continuous random network and may cause anomalous electrical behavior. The material can be passivated by hydrogen, which bonds to the dangling bonds and can reduce the dangling bond density by several orders of magnitude. Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) has a sufficiently low amount of defects to be used within devices such as solar photovoltaic cells, particularly in the protocrystalline growth regime.〔R.W. Collins, et al., "Evolution of microstructure and phase in amorphous, protocrystalline, and microcrystalline silicon studied by real time spectroscopic ellipsometry", ''Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells'', 78(1-4), pp. 143-180, 2003.〕〔S. Y. Myong, S. W. Kwon, J. H. Kwak, K. S. Lim, J. M. Pearce, and M. Konagai, "Good stability of protocrystalline silicon multilayer solar cells against light irradiation originating from vertically regular distribution of isolated nano-sized silicon grains", ''4th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion Proceeding''s, p. 492, 2006.〕 However, hydrogenation is associated with light-induced degradation of the material, termed the Staebler–Wronski effect.〔C. R. Wronski, et al., "Intrinsic and Light Induced Gap States in a-Si:H Materials and Solar Cells - Effects of Microstructure", ''Thin Solid Films'', 451-452 pp. 470-475, 2004.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Amorphous silicon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|