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Christophe Ballif

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Related publications (443)

Comparison of amorphous silicon absorber materials: Light-induced degradation and solar cell efficiency

Christophe Ballif, Grégory Bugnon, Franz-Josef Haug, Matthieu Despeisse, Michael Elias Stückelberger, Jan-Willem Alexander Schüttauf

Several amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) deposition conditions have been reported to produce films that degrade least under light soaking when incorporated into a-Si:H solar cells. However, a systematic comparison of these a-Si:H materials has never been present ...

American Institute of Physics2013

Amorphous silicon based betavoltaic devices

Christophe Ballif, Sylvain Dunand, Yannick Samuel Riesen, Andrea Franco

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon betavoltaic devices are studied both by simulation and experimentally. Devices exhibiting a power density of 0.1 μW/cm2 upon Tritium exposure were fabricated. However, a significant degradation of the performance is taking pl ...

2013

Analysis of lateral transport through the inversion layer in amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Stefaan De Wolf

In amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction solar cells, an inversion layer is present at the front interface. By combining numerical simulations and experiments, we examine the contribution of the inversion layer to lateral transport and assess whethe ...

American Institute of Physics2013

Smoothening intermediate reflecting layer for tandem thin-film silicon solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Nicolas Blondiaux, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Matthieu Despeisse, Corsin Battaglia

We introduce the concept of smoothening intermediate reflecting layers (IRLs) in Micromorph thin-film silicon tandem solar cells in the superstrate configuration. The aim of such structures is not only to provide a selective reflection of light for optimal ...

Elsevier2013

Record Infrared Internal Quantum Efficiency in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells With Dielectric/Metal Rear Reflectors

Christophe Ballif, Antoine Descoeudres, Stefaan De Wolf

Inserting a dielectric between the absorber and rear metal electrode of a solar cell increases rear internal reflectance by both limiting the transmission cone and suppressing the plasmonic absorption of light arriving outside of the cone. We fabricate rea ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2013

Limit of light coupling strength in solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Hans Peter Herzig, Toralf Scharf, Franz-Josef Haug, Ali Naqavi

We introduce a limit for the strength of coupling light into the modes of solar cells. This limit depends on both a cell’s thickness and its modal properties. For a cell with refractive index n and thickness d, we obtain a maximal coupling rate of $2c\sqrt ...

American Institute of Physics2013

Relaxing the Conductivity/Transparency Trade-Off in MOCVD ZnO Thin Films by Hydrogen Plasma

Christophe Ballif, Laura Ding, Sylvain Nicolay

Increasing the conductivity of polycrystalline zinc oxide films without impacting the transparency is a key aspect in the race to find affordable and high quality material as replacement of indium-containing oxides. Usually, ZnO film conductivity is provid ...

Wiley-Blackwell2013

High-efficiency microcrystalline silicon single-junction solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Gaetano Parascandolo, Grégory Bugnon, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Matthieu Despeisse, Jordi Escarre Palou, Simon Hänni

This short communication highlights our latest results towards high-efficiency microcrystalline silicon single-junction solar cells. By combining adequate cell design with high-quality material, a new world record efficiency was achieved for single-junctio ...

Wiley-Blackwell2013

Amorphous Si Thin Film Based Photocathodes with High Photovoltage for Efficient Hydrogen Production

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Corsin Battaglia

An amorphous Si thin film with TiO2 encapsulation layer is demonstrated as a highly promising and stable photocathode for solar hydrogen production. With platinum as prototypical cocatalyst, a photocurrent onset potential of 0.93 V vs RHE and saturation ph ...

American Chemical Society2013

Plasmonic silicon solar cells: impact of material quality and geometry

Christophe Ballif, Céline Pahud, Hans Peter Herzig, Franz-Josef Haug, Ali Naqavi

We study n-i-p amorphous silicon solar cells with light-scattering nanoparticles in the back reflector. In one configuration, the particles are fully embedded in the zinc oxide buffer layer; In a second configuration, the particles are placed between the b ...

Optical Society of America2013

Electrothermal Finite-Element Modeling for Defect Characterization in Thin-Film Silicon Solar Modules

Christophe Ballif, Mathias Bonmarin, Michael Elias Stückelberger, Thomas Andreas Lanz, Beat Ruhstaller, Christian Frédéric Schlumpf

We present and validate a finite-element model for coupled charge and heat transport in monolithically interconnected thin-film solar modules. Using measured current-voltage (I-V) and lock-in thermography (LIT) measurements of amorphous silicon minimodules ...

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers2013

Improving metal reflectors by suppressing surface plasmon polaritons: a priori calculation of the internal reflectance of a solar cell

Christophe Ballif, Stefaan De Wolf

Imperfect internal reflectance of near-bandgap light reduces the performance of all solar cells, and becomes increasingly detrimental as absorbers become thinner. We consider light incident on the silicon/dielectric/metal structure at the back of rear-pass ...

Nature Publishing Group2013

Optical transmission as a fast and non-destructive tool for determination of ethylene-co-vinyl acetate curing state in photovoltaic modules

Christophe Ballif, Yun Luo, Hengyu Li, Laure-Emmanuelle Perret Aebi

Poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate) (EVA) is the primary polymer used for encapsulation of photovoltaic (PV) modules. Its degree of cross-linking (gel content) is taken as a major quality reference. The EVA gel content is normally measured by Soxhlet extractio ...

2013

Light Harvesting Schemes for High Efficiency Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

Christophe Ballif, Mathieu Charrière, Peter Cuony, Gaetano Parascandolo, Laura Ding, Sylvain Nicolay, Grégory Bugnon, Mathieu Gérard Boccard, Matthieu Despeisse, Corsin Battaglia, Jordi Escarre Palou, Michael Elias Stückelberger, Maximilien Joseph Marie Bonnet-Eymard

In Thin Film Silicon (TF-Si) solar cells light harvesting schemes must guarantee an efficient light trapping in the thin absorber layers without decreasing the silicon layers quality and consecutively the p-i-n diodes electrical performance. TF-Si solar ce ...

Ieee2012

Novel Colored Esthetical and Lightweight Photovoltaic Tiles for Full Building Integration

Christophe Ballif, Yves Leterrier, Christian Roecker, Jean-Louis Scartezzini, Josef Andreas Schuler, Matthieu Mottet, Valentin Chapuis, Martin Joly, Stefan Mertin, Robert James Tween

2012

High-efficiency Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells: A Review

Christophe Ballif, Antoine Descoeudres, Stefaan De Wolf

De Gruyter, De Gruyter2012

The development of high performance SnO2:F as TCOs for thin film silicon solar cells

Christophe Ballif, Laura Ding, Sylvain Nicolay

High performance transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) have significance for optimising photovoltaic (PV) performance. The efficiency of the resulting solar cells is dependent particularly on achieving high light scattering, low resistivity and low absorpti ...

Elsevier2012

Geometrical Impact on Guided Mode Excitation in Solar Cells

Christophe Ballif, Hans Peter Herzig, Karin Söderström, Franz-Josef Haug, Ali Naqavi

We investigate the influence of patterned metallic back reflector on absorption in thinfilm silicon photovoltaics. The impact of symmetry, periodicity, and angle of incidence of light is discussed by simulation and experiment. ...

2012

A-Si:H/c-Si heterojunctions: a future mainstream technology for high-efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells ?

Christophe Ballif, Antoine Descoeudres, Stefaan De Wolf, Loris Barraud

In this contribution, we shortly review the main features of amorphous/crystalline silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells, including interface defects and requirements for high quality interfaces. We show how a process flow with a limited number of proce ...

Ieee2012

Influence of the ZnO buffer on the guided mode structure in Si/ZnO/Ag multilayers (vol 106, 044502, 2009)

Christophe Ballif, Vanessa Terrazzoni-Daudrix, Franz-Josef Haug

2012

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