The Research on Photovoltaics at CNR -Lamel Institute, Bologna

The pioneering research in Photovoltaics at CNR - Lamel Institute is briefly reviewed, while the recent research efforts to obtain high efficiency devices at low costs, are reported extensively. Our studies are now focused on the amorphous or microcrystalline Si / crystalline Si heterojunction solar cells, and the epitaxial Si / crystalline Si homojunction devices. Using a novel microcrystalline p+ emitter layer with a high crystalline fraction, we expect both a reduced optical absorption and a better electrical characteristics of the cell. A 14% efficiency has been obtained on simple devices without any optimization like surface texturing, light trapping scheme, device thickness optimization or contact passivation schemes.