University of Mainz, said a communique on the 13th, the school researchers involved in the thin film solar research project made significant progress, is expected to make breakthroughs in thin film solar photovoltaic conversion rate of 20% of the current record.
Currently the highest rate of photoelectric conversion is copper indium gallium selenium (CIGS) thin film solar cells, up to 20%, but with more than 30% of the theoretical values are still far apart, the main problem is the material of indium, gallium and proportion of difficult achieve the desired value.
University of Mainz researchers and IBM’s German division Mainz in Germany and production of special glass SCHOTT Corporation in cooperation with the computer simulation program found that CIGS material indium gallium separation temperature, that is slightly lower the case of room temperature, indium gallium will be completely separate and uneven distribution of the photoelectric effect led to reduced materials. More than this temperature, the indium gallium fusion with each other, and the higher the temperature, the more uniform their distribution. This indicates that the thin film solar manufacturing process requires high temperatures, as long as the final cooling step can be fast enough to make this uniform, “set grid.”
Past production process by producing the necessary restrictions on the heat resistance of glass floor, unable to raise the temperature. To this end the company SCHOTT developed a tolerance to more than 600 degrees Celsius to the special glass material. The researchers said the results of a major breakthrough.
