Ion-implantation and photovoltaics efficiency: A review

Ion-implantation is a sophisticated and advanced technique in material science to modify the material’s surface properties without changing their bulk properties by producing intermediate energy levels in the bandgap of a semiconductor. The metal/nonmetal element can be incorporated in the near-surface region of any metal/nonmetal target substrate with absolute purity using the ion-implantation technique. Ion-implantation in photovoltaic (PV) cells attracted the attention of investigators because of its ability to implant the required metal ions into the substrate layers with the advantage of controlling the location and the composition to acquire high performance by allowing the multi-stage transition of electrons. This featured letter elaborates the ion-implantation technological application to photovoltaics, providing a opportunity to optimize the production of advanced solar cell structure by modifying the defects in the crystal lattice and hence optimizing the processing steps for quality enhancements. The ion-implantation technology has established outstanding enhancement in conversion efficiency, improvement in conductivity by reducing the recombination rate of electron-hole pairs and hence the light-harvesting ability in thin films of the solar cells.