Fabrication and characterisation of parallel multijunction thin film silicon solar cells

The parallel multijunction solar cell design offers the exciting possibility of high efficiency at low cost. To date, there has been no detailed report on the experimental characteristics of these devices. This paper reports on the beginnings of a detailed experimental investigation of the parallel multijunction solar cell. Progress is reported on the fabrication of parallel multijunction thin-film silicon solar cells (on inert single-crystal silicon substrates), specifically designed and fabricated to serve as experimental test-beds for the detailed study of cell performance limiting mechanisms. Of particular interest is the importance of junction space-charge-region recombination in heavily defected parallel multijunction cells.