Recent Advances in Thin Film Photovoltaics

This book provides recent development in thin-film solar cells (TFSC).  TFSC have proven the promising approach for terrestrial and space  photovoltaics. TFSC have the potential to change the device design and  produce high efficiency devices on rigid/flexible substrates with  significantly low manufacturing cost. TFSC have several advantages in  manufacturing compared to traditional crystalline Si-solar cells like  less requirement of materials, can be prepared with earth’s abundant  materials, less processing steps, easy to dispose, etc. Several  universities/research institutes/industry in India and abroad are  involved in the research area of thin-film solar cells. The book helps  the readers to find the details about different thin-film technologies  and its advancement at one place. Each chapter covers properties of  materials, its suitability for PV applications, simple manufacturing  processes and recent and past literature survey. The issues related to  the development of high efficiency TFSC devices over large area and its  commercial and future prospects are discussed.