Cast polycrystalline silicon Schottky-barrier solar cells

Measurements have been made of the electrical and optical properties of polycrystalline metal-insulator-semiconductor Schottky-barrier solar cells (MIS SBSC’s) formed by the evaporation of aluminum onto Wacker ’’Silso’’ cast p-type silicon substrates. Results show that consistently high AM1 efficiencies of over 8% may be achieved using this material and that the V-I characteristics are stable over the period of testing. The short-circuit current of these devices (∼22 mA cm−2) indicates that grain-boundary recombinationn is not a serious problem.