LPE growth of textured single crystal silicon thin film for PV applications

The fabrication of solar cells based on thin silicon film on foreign substr ates is an attractive way to realise cheap and efficient photovoltaic devic es on a large scale. In this work, we propose an innovative technique to ob tain textured monocrystalline Si on mullite owing to the transfer of a nucl eation layer and subsequent LPE growth. The nucleation layer (with the shap e of a grid) is elaborated by photoelectrochemical etching. The grid patter n parameters will determine the shape of the LPE layer surface, flat or pyr amidal textured for efficient light trapping. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V . All rights reserved.