Crystalline-silicon heterojunction solar cells with graphene incorporation

Abstract Amongst the silicon (Si)-based photovoltaics, heterojunction solar cells are the most promising solar cells due to their low thermal coefficient, high efficiency, and compatibility with newly emerged materials, such as graphene and perovskite. Studies on Si-based solar cells with graphene have increased dramatically in recent years. Thus far, high power conversion efficiency has been achieved up to 15 % by integrating graphene into graphene/Si Schottky junction solar cells since graphene has excellent electrical and optical properties. This chapter provides an overview of the status of the implementation of graphene into Si-based solar cells and focuses on the integration of graphene to Si heterojunction solar cells as a transparent conductive oxide. The chapter is presented in two parts. The first part reviews and discusses the literature on Si heterojunction solar cells and graphene. The second part contains experimental studies divided into three sections. We discuss photovoltaic parameters and the fabrication of Si-based heterojunction solar cells and underline the advantages and problematic issues in Section I. Section II describes graphene synthesis by chemical vapor deposition, doping, and characterization in detail. The results are discussed in relation to the current literature. Section III is devoted to Si heterojunction/graphene solar cell power conversion efficiency. This chapter concludes with predicting the future direction of high efficiency and low-cost Si heterojunction/graphene solar cells.