The Bridge - Issue 2, 2021 - 5

Guest Editors
Letter from
the Guest Editor
By Dr. Amirhossein Ghods
Photovoltaic devices are an attractive and durable source of energy,
especially in areas with long hours of continuous sunshine and relatively
stable meteorological conditions. Major programs have been launched
across the world to utilize and optimize the use of this natural resource,
from the U.S. Department of Energy's SunShot initiative to the Lighting
Africa program founded by the singer/rapper Akon. Research by the
World Bank and the International Finance Corporation indicates that
more than 32 million people in Africa are currently meeting their basic
electricity needs through off-grid solar products. This level of solar energy
usage is the CO2-equivalent to taking 383,745 cars off the road for
a year.
In recent years, the general perspective toward photovoltaic devices has
substantially changed from inefficient, bulky, and expensive to more
efficient, smaller, and more cost-effective devices. Solar cells made from
semiconductors other than silicon have shown promising results, such as
notably higher practical power conversion efficiency and easier fabrication
processes. Moving beyond single-junction devices has also opened the
door to highly efficient devices that capture a much larger portion of the
solar spectrum than conventional silicon-based solar cells.
In this issue, we review applications of organic and inorganic
semiconductors that can be used in photovoltaic devices. The concept
of metal-semiconductor junction is introduced and explained from both
modeling and simulation perspectives, as well as the practical device
fabrication viewpoint. Metal-semiconductor junctions have shown great
promise in replacing current p-n junction solar cells. In other words, a
simpler and more cost-effective fabrication process, in addition to the
potential to achieve higher power conversion efficiency, have made
metal-semiconductor junction solar cells an attractive choice for use
in developing markets and economies. It is the objective of this issue
to demonstrate global efforts being made to study new materials and
structures that can be used in solar cells to achieve higher efficiency
and easier production.
Dr. Amirhossein
Ghods
Park Systems, Inc
HKN.ORG
5
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The Bridge - Issue 2, 2021

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