The MRS Symposium Proceeding series is an internationally recognised reference suitable for researchers and practitioners.

This book on amorphous silicon technology shows a trend towards technologies based on amorphous and heterogeneous silicon (solar cells, TFTs, imaging arrays, sensors, etc.) and brings together researchers from around the world to share their expanding expertise. The book contains eleven chapters and focuses on basic mechanisms of growth (as well as new approaches to film growth); hot wire, CVD-produced amorphous and microcrystalline films and related subjects of film crystallization and recrystallization; the electronic structure and transport properties of silicon-based thin films are discussed, together with hydrogen microstructure and metastability. Silicon nitride, four on alloys with germanium, and two dealing predominantly with silicon carbide are looked at. There is also focus on photovoltaic devices based on either amorphous or microcrystalline (or mixed phase) materials. It also offers a look at thin-film transistors, as well as related types of imaging and sensing arrays and there are papers on novel device structures and new types of technologies being developed using amorphous/heterogeneous thin film, silicon-based materials.

This book on amorphous silicon technology shows a trend towards technologies based on amorphous and heterogeneous silicon (solar cells, TFTs, imaging arrays, sensors, etc.) and brings together researchers from around the world to share their expanding expertise. The book contains eleven chapters and focuses on basic mechanisms of growth (as well as new approaches to film growth); hot wire, CVD-produced amorphous and microcrystalline films and related subjects of film crystallization and recrystallization; the electronic structure and transport properties of silicon-based thin films are discussed, together with hydrogen microstructure and metastability. Silicon nitride, four on alloys with germanium, and two dealing predominantly with silicon carbide are looked at. There is also focus on photovoltaic devices based on either amorphous or microcrystalline (or mixed phase) materials. It also offers a look at thin-film transistors, as well as related types of imaging and sensing arrays and there are papers on novel device structures and new types of technologies being developed using amorphous/heterogeneous thin film, silicon-based materials.

Thin-film solar cells are either emerging or about to emerge from the research laboratory to become commercially available devices finding practical various applications. Currently no textbook outlining the basic theoretical background, methods of fabrication and applications currently exist. Thus, this book aims to present for the first time an in-depth overview of this topic covering a broad range of thin-film solar cell technologies including both organic and inorganic materials, presented in a systematic fashion, by the scientific leaders in the respective domains. It covers a broad range of related topics, from physical principles to design, fabrication, characterization, and applications of novel photovoltaic devices.

This book looks at the exchange of information on the physics and application of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon and presents exciting new developments. Significant progress has been made in the high- or even ultra-high-rate deposition of device-quality amorphous and microcrystalline silicon, in in-situ growth characterization techniques and in state-of-the-art computer modeling of deposition processes. These issues are especially important for the successful future commercialization of silicon thin-film devices. The latest results concerning silicon thin-film solar cells are highlighted. Active matrix arrays for displays or sensors continue to be the second major application of thin silicon films, and again much progress has been made in that area. Topics include: nucleation and growth; novel concepts; hot-wire CVD; high-rate deposition; growth of silicon and silicon-alloy thin films; crystallization; silicon-based alloys; structural properties of heterogeneous silicon films; dopants and impurities; amorphous and silicon solar cells; metastability; hydrogen and metastability; transport in µc-Si; thin-film transistors; hydrogenation and oxidation; defects and defect spectroscopy; structural and electronic properties of thin silicon films; heterojunctions; TFTs and sensors; amorphous-to-microcrystalline transition and structural relaxation and diffusion.