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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

By rapidly heating silicon wafers covered with thin iron silicide and aluminum films, A*STAR researchers have developed a way to eliminate many of the complicated, time-consuming steps [phys.org] needed to fabricate light harvesting solar cells.

Silicon photovoltaic devices typically sandwich two semiconductor layers containing positively or negatively charged impurity atoms, or dopants, into a so-called p-n junction. The electric field that forms at the p-n interface is an efficient way to collect charge carriers generated from incident light. However, accurately implanting or diffusing dopants into silicon requires specialized equipment and ultra-clean manufacturing conditions.

Goutam Dalapati and co-workers from the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering found that metal silicides, substances produced when metal coatings are annealed with silicon wafers, hold new promise for reducing solar cell production costs. Metal silicides are fundamental to the operation of nearly all microelectronic devices, and behave like conductive wires or voltage-dependent switches depending on their contents and preparation conditions—an adaptable nature the team aimed to exploit with iron-based silicides.

Original Submission