New tool for analyzing solar-cell materials
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 - 06:30
in Physics & Chemistry
To make a silicon solar cell, you start with a slice of highly purified silicon crystal, and then process it through several stages involving gradual heating and cooling. But figuring out the tradeoffs involved in selecting the purity level of the starting silicon wafer and then exactly how much to heat it, how fast, for how long, and so on through each of several steps has largely been a matter of trial and error, guided by intuition and experience.