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Introduction
Tetsuo Soga
Department of Environmental Technology and Urban Planning

Nagoya Institute of Technology
Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan
Energy conversion in solar cell consists of generation of electron-hole pairs

in semiconductors by the absorption of light and separation of electrons and
holes by an internal electric field. Charge carriers collected by two electrodes
give rise to a photocurrent when the two terminals are connected externally.
When a resistance load is connected to the two terminals, the separation of
the charge carriers sets up a potential difference.
Most of the solar cells used in the terrestrial applications are bulk-type
single- or multi-crystalline silicon solar cells. The typical cell structure is a
thin (less than 1 Ixm) n-type emitter layer on a thick (about 300 txm) p-type
substrate. Photo-generated electrons and holes diffuse to the space charge
region at the interface where they are separated by the internal electric field.
The effective charge separation results from long diffusion length of electrons
and holes in crystalline silicon. Although it is aimed to reduce the solar cell
module manufacturing cost, the drastic reduction of cell cost and increase
of the conversion efficiency cannot be expected by using the conventional
materials and solar cell structures. Moreover, the shortage of the feedstock
of high-purity silicon is predicted in the near future although it depends on
off-spec silicon of electronics industry. Therefore, research and develop-
ment of solar cells with low production cost, high conversion efficiency and
low feedstock consumption are required.
An important concept to reach this goal is to use nanostructured mate-
rials instead of bulk materials. The motivations to employ nanostructures in
solar cells are largely divided into three categories as follows:
1. To improve the performance of conventional solar cells.
2. To obtain relatively high conversion efficiency from low grade
(inexpensive) materials with low production cost and low-energy
consumption.
viii Tetsuo Soga
3. To obtain a conversion efficiency higher than the theoretical limit

of conventional p-n junction solar cell.
This book brings out an overview of the organic and inorganic nano-
structured materials for solar energy conversion. The book comprises of fwe
parts as follows:
PART I. FUNDAMENTALS OF N A N O S T R U C T U R E D
SOLAR C E L L S
The fundamental issues to deal with nanostructured solar cells are described
on device modeling, optical and electrical modeling and modeling of refrac-
tive index and reflectivity of quantum solar cells. The chapter on basic proper-
ties of semiconductor materials and the conventional p-n junction solar cells
deals with nanostructured solar cells.
PART II. NANOSTRUCTURES IN C ONVE NT I ONAL THIN

F I L M S O L A R CELLS
Nanostructures of conventional thin film solar cells such as silicon solar cells,
chalcopyrite-based solar cells, CdS-based solar cells and CdTe-based solar
cells are described. Amorphous silicon has attracted attention to reduce the
manufacturing cost compared with bulk-type crystalline silicon. But there
still remains a problem of stability. Recently, microcrystalline thin film silicon
solar cells made up of nano-sized crystallites with the material properties
between amorphous and bulk have been studied actively. It is expected to
obtain very high conversion efficiency (more than 15%) by employing amor-
phous silicon/microcrystalline silicon tandem solar cells. It also describes
that it is possible to improve the performance and reduce the cost of thin
film solar cells based on chalcopyrite-based materials, CdS, CdTe and CuzS.
PART III. DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS
The principle and the current status of dye-sensitized solar cells are described.
In the conventional p-n junction solar cells, only the electrons and holes
that can diffuse to the space charge region can be collected as a current. In
order to get a long diffusion length, the purity of semiconductors should be
increased and the defect concentration should be decreased, resulting in the
expensive solar cell materials. In a dye-sensitized solar cell, a photon absorbed
Introduction ix
by a dye molecule gives rise to electron injection into the conduction band
of nanocrystalline oxide semiconductors such as TiO 2 or ZnO. Because of the
high surface area, relatively high photocurrent can be obtained in spite of
the simple process. The dye is regenerated by electron transfer from a redox
species in solution. A chapter on solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells in which
the liquid electrolyte is replaced by p-type semiconductor is also dealt with.
PART IV. O R G A N I C - A N D CARBON-BASED SOLAR CELLS
The principle and the current status of organic solar cell and fullerene-based
solar cell are described. Organic solar cells are attractive as solar cell materials
because of high throughput manufacture process, ultra-thin film, flexible,
lightweight and inexpensive. Organic materials differ from inorganic materi-
als since the excited carriers exist as excitons, excitons are separated into
electrons and holes at the interface, charge carrier transport is followed by
hopping, etc. In order to increase the efficiency bulk, heterojunction solar cells
using conjugated polymers and small molecule organic materials such as
phthalocyanine have been investigated. It is important to understand the
properties of fullerenes because it is often used as an organic solar cell. The
photosynthetic materials are also studied as solar cell materials and a solid
state cell is demonstrated.
PART V. OTHER NANOSTRUCTURES
Solar cells using other semiconductor nanostructures are overviewed. The

concept of ETA (extremely thin absorber) is similar to that of dye-sensitized
solar cells except that the ETA solar cell is completely made up of inorganic
semiconductors. The concept of quantum structures is very important because
there is a possibility to achieve the conversion efficiency higher than the the-
oretical limit of conventional p-n junction solar cells by employing quantum
well or quantum dot structures. The idea is to extend the optical absorption
to longer wavelengths by quantum wells, to use the carrier multiplication
which produces the quantum efficiency exceeding unity, to use intermediate
bands made of quantum dots, etc. It is also expected that single wall carbon
nanotubes can improve the transport properties of polymer-based solar cells.

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vii

Department of Environmental Technology and Urban Planning

Energy conversion in solar cell consists of generation of electron-hole pairs

3. To obtain a conversion efficiency higher than the theoretical limit

PART II. NANOSTRUCTURES IN C ONVE NT I ONAL THIN

PART III. DYE-SENSITIZED SOLAR CELLS

PART IV. O R G A N I C - A N D CARBON-BASED SOLAR CELLS

PART V. OTHER NANOSTRUCTURES

Solar cells using other semiconductor nanostructures are overviewed. The

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