Meet the editors

Dr. Zaidi is an associate professor in the Department of Physics, University of Batna 1, Algeria. He obtained a Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Annaba, Algeria, in 2014. He has published several research papers in reputed journals and written three books. He was editor in chief of the *International Journal of Materials Science and Applications* (IJMSA) as well as an editorial board member for numerous other journals and lead guest editor

of many special issues. He is also a journal peer reviewer. Dr. Zaidi has participated in many international conferences.

Dr. C. Shekhar is an assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Amity School of Applied Sciences, Amity University Haryana, India. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Department of Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, in 2012 and thereafter worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He obtained his MSc in Physics

and MTech in Materials Science from Barkatullah University, Bhopal, India. Dr. Shekhar has published thirty-seven research papers in national and international journals and conference proceedings, filed one Indian patent, and presented papers at numerous conferences. His research interests include phase equilibria and thermodynamic properties of ceramics and alloys; CALPHAD modelling, nanostructured thin films for gas sensors, photovoltaics, and dielectric properties of materials.

Contents

**Preface XI**

**Chapter 1 1**

**Chapter 2 5**

**Chapter 3 17**

**Chapter 4 39**

**Chapter 5 65**

**Chapter 6 85**

Materials for Photovoltaics: Overview, Generations, Recent Advancements

*by Muhammad Aamir Iqbal, Maria Malik, Wajeehah Shahid,* 

Outdoor Performance of Perovskite Photovoltaic Technology *by Esteban Velilla Hernández, Juan Bernardo Cano Quintero, Juan Felipe Montoya, Iván Mora-Seró and Franklin Jaramillo Isaza*

*by Akin Olaleru, Eric Maluta, Joseph Kirui and Olasoji Adekoya*

Binary Semiconductors Thin Films Characterization for Solar Cells

Introductory Chapter: Thin Films Photovoltaics

*Syed Zaheer Ud Din, Nadia Anwar, Mujtaba Ikram* 

Kesterite Cu2ZnSnS4-xSex Thin Film Solar Cells *by Kaiwen Sun, Fangyang Liu and Xiaojing Hao*

*by Beddiaf Zaidi and Chander Shekhar*

*by Kenza Kamli and Zakaria Hadef*

Hybrid Perovskite Thin Film

and Future Prospects

*and Faryal Idrees*

Applications

## Contents


Preface

Silicon-based monocrystalline and multicrystalline solar cells are by far the most widely used solar cells today. Thin film technologies in general, and cadmium sulfide (CdS) and cadmium telluride (CdTe) in particular, are increasingly being employed. Other solar cells based on dyes or organic materials are still in their infancy but promise a bright future for more efficient photovoltaic technologies.

high-efficiency silicon cells, which are manufactured from bulk wafers hundreds of micrometers thick. Thin films sacrifice some light-gathering efficiency but use less material. In copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells, the efficiency tradeoff is less severe than in silicon. The record efficiencies for thin film CIGS cells are slightly less than those of CIGS for lab-scale top performance cells. In 2008, CIGS efficiency was by far the highest compared with those achieved by other thin film technologies such as CdTe photovoltaics or amorphous silicon (a-Si). CIS and CGS solar cells offer total area efficiencies of 15.0% and 9.5%, respectively. In 2015, the gap with the other thin film technologies was closed, with record cell efficiencies

In photovoltaics, "thinness" generally refers to so-called first-generation,

in laboratories of 21.5% for CdTe (FirstSolar) and 21.7% for CIGS (ZSW).

ABX3 where A and B are cations of different sizes and X is an anion.

these technologies is around 10% and remains relatively stable.

Thin film-based solar cells that have the common processes for deposition of

One material with a larger bandgap than Si is perovskite, which has been researched since 2009 for use in thin film solar cells. Starting with a 4% cell efficiency, perovskites have shown rapid progress, demonstrating a 10.9% efficient cell mid-2012 and increasing to as much as 17.9% in 2014. Perovskites are materials following the formula

semiconducting materials with low thickness on different substrates giving uniform appearance produce modules of slightly lower efficiency. The market share for all

**Beddiaf Zaidi**

Batna, Algeria

Haryana, India

**Chander Shekhar** Department of Physics,

Faculty of Matter Sciences, Department of Physics, University of Batna 1,

Amity School of Applied Sciences, Amity University Gurgaon,
