[Research Highlights Vol.50] High-Performance Solar Cells Based on Silicon Nanopencil Structures

Solar cells are an important alternative energy source. The traditional solar-cell material of choice is crystalline silicon, which enables high power conversion efficiency, is stable, and has a well-established manufacturing process. Drawbacks with crystalline silicon are the high production cost and its fundamental efficiency limit. Now, Naoki Fukata at the International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan, and colleagues have fabricated a high-efficiency solar-cell material also based on silicon but with a significantly lower production cost. This work was done in collaboration with Oji Holdings Corporation.