Preface

Chapter 8 **Inorganic–Organic Perovskite Solar Cells 223**

Chapter 10 **Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells with Nickel/Copper**

Atteq ur Rehman and Soo Hong Lee

**Multiple Quantum Wells 333**

Chapter 13 **Bulk Heterojunction Solar Cells — Opportunities and**

**Contacts 279**

**VI** Contents

Chapter 11 **Quantum Dots Solar Cells 303** Khalil Ebrahim Jasim

> **Challenges 359** Qun Ye and Jian Wei Xu

Sohrab Ahmadi Kandjani, Soghra Mirershadi and Arash Nikniaz

Roger E. Welser, Ashok K. Sood, Ramesh B. Laghumavarapu, Diana L. Huffaker, David M. Wilt, Nibir K. Dhar and Kimberly A. Sablon

Chapter 9 **The Physics of High-Efficiency Thin-Film III-V Solar Cells 247**

Chapter 12 **Solar Cells with InGaN/GaN and InP/InGaAsP and InGaP/GaAs**

Shaoguang Dong, Kanghua Chen, Guojie Chen and Xin Chen

This book contains chapters in which the problems of modern photovoltaics are considered. The majority of the chapters provide an overview of the results of research and development of different types of solar cells. Such chapters are completed by a justification for a new solar cell structure and technology.

An overview on inorganic solar cells includes the development of new materials, morphology control, large-scale synthesis, as well as the economic aspects of technology. These devices have attracted great attention of scientists and engineers due to lower production cost, low weight, and new market opportunities, such as flexible PV and semitransparent PV window. One more view on the possibilities of using quantum wells and superlattice to increase the efficiency of solar cells is developed and substantiated.

It is known that the screen-printing technology of silicon solar cells is mainly used in the photo‐ voltaic industry. But such technology has the drawbacks of higher contact resistance and leads to degrading the solar cell performance (silver pastes used are expensive). The metal contacts having superior electrical performance and lower production costs are vital for photovoltaic industrial production. The authors present a good overview of the process conditions for such metallization and current research works.

A new technology for manufacturing of dye-sensitized solar cells based on polymer electro‐ lytes by sol-gel process is reported in one of the chapters. Synthesis of modified PB by solgel process can be considered as one of the ways to increase photovoltaic performances and to improve the stability of DSSC. This is undoubtedly of interest to readers concerned with solar cells.

A qualitatively different way of using organic electronic compounds can be via exploiting resonant interactions in organic-inorganic hybrid structures. Within the same hybrid struc‐ ture, one could combine high conductivity of the inorganic semiconductor component with the strong light-matter interaction of the organic component.

Of course, highly effective solar energy conversion is impossible without an in-depth exami‐ nation of the solar cell components as physical materials. The relations between structural, thermodynamic, and optical properties of the physical material without addressing the band theory of solids are of both theoretical and practical interest. Requirements formulated for the material are also to be used for maximally efficient conversion of solar radiation into useful work.

The editor addresses special thanks to the contributors for their initiative and high-quality work and to the technical editors who rendered the text into a qualitative and pleasant pre‐ sentation.

> **Professor, Doctor of Sciences, Leonid A. Kosyachenko** National University of Chernivtsi Ukraine
