面向下一代光伏产业的硅太阳电池研究新进展*

以晶体硅为代表的第一代太阳电池和以非晶硅薄膜为代表的第二代薄膜太阳电池目前是光伏市场主流。第三代纳米结构太阳电池研发目标是在维持现有第二代薄膜电池沉积技术的经济性和环保性基础上显著提高电池性能及稳定性，进一步降低太阳电池的价格至每瓦0.5美元，甚至0.2美元及更低。笔者将简要综述近年来国际上面向下一代光伏产业的硅太阳电池研究新进展，内容集中在纳米硅薄膜叠层太阳电池、硅纳米线（包括轴向、径向和单根）太阳电池和基于多重激子效应的纳米硅热载流子太阳电池等三个方面。

Silicon Solar Cells: New Achievements for Next Generation PV Industry

Both the first generation crystalline Si and the second generation non crystalline Si thin film solar cells dominate the current photovoltaic (PV) industry. The third generation nanotechnology approaches aim to decrease costs to well below 1.0 USD/W level of second generation PVs to 0.5 USD/W, potentially to 0.2 USD/W or better, by significantly increasing efficiencies but maintaining the economic and environmental cost advantages of thin film deposition techniques. In this paper, we present a brief review on the recent achievements in Si nanocrystalline and nanowire solar cells as the future PV industry may belong to these nanostructured Si solar cells. The emphasis is on hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc Si:H) tandem thin film solar cells with the band gap tuned by the dot size, the preliminary application of Si nanowire arrays in planar Si solar cells and radial Si solar cell concept including single nanowire Si solar cells, and multiple exciton generation nc Si:H hot carrier solar cells.