Polycrystalline silicon on glass thin-film solar cell research at UNSW the seed layer concept

A novel seed layer-based poly-Si solar cell concept on glass-ALICIA (aluminium-induced crystallisation, ion-assisted deposition)-is presently being developed at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). The first key feature of ALICIA solar cells is a large-grained p/sup +/-doped poly-Si seed layer made on the glass by means of aluminium-induced crystallisation (AIC) of amorphous silicon. The other key feature is the deposition of the remainder of the semiconductor with a fast low-temperature Si deposition method, ion-assisted deposition (IAD). This paper reports on the experimental status of this promising novel solar cell technology.