Publication
Influence of Feature Size, Film Thickness, and Silicon Doping on the Performance of Nanostructured Hematite Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting
Publications associées (38)
Reactive Sputtering of Bismuth Vanadate Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting
Bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) has attracted increasing attention as a photoanode for photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting. It has a band gap in the visible light range (2.4-2.5 eV) and a valence band position suitable for driving water oxidation under ill ...
Amer Chemical Soc2013The Transient Photocurrent and Photovoltage Behavior of a Hematite Photoanode under Working Conditions and the Influence of Surface Treatments
Michael Graetzel, Kevin Sivula, Florian Le Formal
Hematite (alpha-Fe2O3) is widely recognized as a promising candidate for the production of solar fuels via water splitting, but its intrinsic optoelectronic properties have limited its performance to date. In particular, the large electrochemical overpoten ...
American Chemical Society2012A New View of Microcrystalline Silicon: The Role of Plasma Processing in Achieving a Dense and Stable Absorber Material for Photovoltaic Applications
Christophe Ballif, Matthieu Despeisse, Grégory Bugnon, Thomas Söderström, Jakub Holovsky, Gaetano Parascandolo, Peter Cuony, Simon Hänni
To further lower production costs and increase conversion efficiency of thin-film silicon solar modules, challenges are the deposition of high-quality microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) at an increased rate and on textured substrates that guarantee efficie ...
2012Cu-based p-type Oxide Photocathodes for Solar Hydrogen Production
The actualization of a hydrogen economy requires cost-effective and environmentally benign solutions to hydrogen production. Chemical energy in the form of hydrogen is more interesting than electricity to satisfy our ever-increasing energy demand because i ...
EPFL2012On the Morphology and Interfaces of Nanostructured Hematite Photoanodes for Solar-Driven Water Splitting
A sustainable route to store the energy provided by the Sun, is to directly convert sunlight into molecular hydrogen using a semiconductor performing water photolysis. Hematite (α-Fe2O3) is promising for this application due to its ample abundance, chemica ...
EPFL2011Improved amorphous/crystalline silicon interface passivation by hydrogen plasma treatment
Christophe Ballif, Antoine Descoeudres, Stefaan De Wolf, Loris Barraud, Benjamin Strahm, Jakub Holovsky, Johannes Peter Seif, Bénédicte Demaurex
Silicon heterojunction solar cells have high open-circuit voltages thanks to excellent passivation of the wafer surfaces by thin intrinsic amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) layers deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition. We show a dramatic improvem ...
2011Optimization of high efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells using silane-plasma diagnostics
Christophe Ballif, Antoine Descoeudres, Stefaan De Wolf, Loris Barraud, Priscille Marguerite Bôle Rothen
In silicon heterojunction solar cells, the passivation of the crystalline silicon wafer surfaces and fabrication of emitter and back surface field are all performed by intrinsic and doped amorphous silicon thin layers, usually deposited by plasma-enhanced ...
2010Polycrystalline ZnO:B grown by LPCVD as TCO for thin film silicon solar cells
Christophe Ballif, Sylvain Nicolay, Sylvie Faÿ
Conductive zinc oxide (ZnO) grown by low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) technique possesses a rough surface that induces an efficient light scattering in thin film silicon (TF Si) solar cells, which makes this TCO an ideal candidate for contact ...
2010Laser applications in thin-film photovoltaics
Christophe Ballif, Andrea Feltrin, Benjamin Strahm
We review laser applications in thin-film photovoltaics (thin-film Si, CdTe, and Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells). Lasers are applied in this growing field to manufacture modules, to monitor Si deposition processes, and to characterize opto-electrical properties ...
Springer Verlag2009TCOs for nip thin film silicon solar cells
Christophe Ballif, Franz-Josef Haug, Xavier Niquille, Thomas Söderström
Substrate configuration allows for the deposition of thin film silicon (Si) solar cells on non-transparent substrates such as plastic sheets or metallic foils. In this work, we develop processes compatible with low Tg plastics. The amorphous Si (a-Si:H) an ...
2009