A transparent conducting film including a nominally undoped conducting ZnO base layer covered with a ZnO cover. The ZnO base layer has a preferred crystallographic orientation, whereas the ZnO cover includes one or more ZnO sublayers, of which at least one has a crystallographically randomly oriented or amorphous structure or a preferred crystallographic orientation different from the preferred crystallographic orientation of the base layer. The invention further relates to a process for the manufacture of such a transparent conducting film.

Methods of manufacturing a CIGS thin film for a solar cell are provided. According to the method, a CIGS thin film having an ideal double band gap grade structure with a large particle size may be obtained by heat-treating a solution-treated CIG oxide thin film by a three-step chalcogenization process. Accordingly, performance of the solar cell may be improved.

Methods of manufacturing a CIGS thin film for a solar cell are provided. According to the method, a CIGS thin film having an ideal double band gap grade structure with a large particle size may be obtained by heat-treating a solution-treated CIG oxide thin film by a three-step chalcogenization process. Accordingly, performance of the solar cell may be improved.

Described are flexible electronics incorporating a bacterial cellulose paper substrate and methods of making and using the flexible electronics. Example devices disclosed include photovoltaic cells constructed over bacterial cellulose paper substrates.

A photosensitive element includes a first film layer, a second film layer and a third film layer. The first film layer, the second film layer and the third film layer are in a sequentially stacked structure, the first film layer is a p-type copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) layer, the second film layer is an i-type CIGS layer, and the third film layer is an n-type film layer, and the first film layer, the second film layer and the third film layer form a PIN junction structure.

A method (200) for fabricating thin-film optoelectronic devices (100), the method comprising: providing a substrate (110), forming a back-contact layer (120); forming at least one absorber layer (130) made of an ABC chalcogenide material, adding at least one alkali metal (235), and forming at least one cavity (236, 610, 612, 613) at the surface of the absorber layer wherein forming of said at least one cavity is by dissolving away from said surface of the absorber layer at least one crystal aggregate comprising at least one alkali crystal comprising at least one alkali metal. The method (200) is advantageous for more environmentally-friendly production of photovoltaic devices (100) on flexible substrates with high photovoltaic conversion efficiency and faster production rate.

A multilayer encapsulant film having at least two layers includes a first layer comprising an encapsulant resin, and a second layer comprising an encapsulant resin and at least one down-converter, such as a rare-earth organometallic complex. The down-converter may be present in an amount of at least 0.0001 wt % based on the total weight of the encapsulant film. Further layers of a multilayer encapsulant film may or may not include a down-converter. Preferably, a multilayer encapsulant film contains at least one layer with at least one down-converter and at least one layer without a down-converter. Such multilayer down-converting films may be used in an electronic device, such as a PV module.

Methods of fabricating photovoltaic cells are provided. The photovoltaic cells include a transparent substrate to allow light to enter the photovoltaic cell through the substrate, and a light absorption layer associated with the substrate. The light absorption layer has opposite first and second surfaces, with the first surface being closer to the transparent substrate than the second surface. A passivation layer is disposed over the second surface of the light absorption layer, and a plurality of first discrete contacts and a plurality of second discrete contacts are provided within the passivation layer to facilitate electrical coupling to the light absorption layer. A first electrode and a second electrode are disposed over the passivation layer to contact the plurality of first discrete contacts and the plurality of second discrete contacts, respectively. The first and second electrodes may include a photon-reflective material.

The invention relates to an optical detector (110) for an optical detection, in particular, of radiation within the infrared spectral range, specifically, with regard to sensing at least one optically conceivable property of an object (112). More particular, the optical detector (110) may be used for determining transmissivity, absorption, emission, reflectance, and/or a position of at least one object (112). Further, the invention relates to a method for manufacturing the optical detector (110) and to various uses of the optical detector (110). The optical detector (110) comprises an optical filter (114) having at least a first surface (116) and a second surface (118), the second surface (118) being located oppositely with respect to the first surface (116), wherein the optical filter (114) is designed for allowing an incident light beam (120) received by the first surface (116) to pass through the optical filter (114) to the second surface (118), thereby generating a modified light beam (122) by modifying a spectral composition of the incident light beam (120); a sensor layer (128) comprising a photosensitive material (130) being deposited on the second surface (118) of the optical filter (114), wherein the sensor layer (128) is designed to generate at least one sensor signal in a manner dependent on an illumination of the sensor layer (128) by the modified light beam (122); and an evaluation device (140) designed to generate at least one item of information provided by the incident light beam (120) by evaluating the sensor signal. The optical detector (110) constitutes an improved simple, cost-efficient and, still, reliable detector for detecting optical radiation, especially within the infrared spectral range, specifically with regard to sensing at least one of transmissivity, absorption, emission and reflectance. Hereby, the optical detector (110) is capable of effectively removing stray light as far as possible.

According to one embodiment, a solar cell includes a first electrode, a second electrode, a light-absorbing layer, and a plurality of metal parts. The light-absorbing layer is interposed between the first electrode and the second electrode. The metal parts are present on a surface of the first electrode opposing the second electrode. A void is provided in at least a part between the metal parts.