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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 109 records · Page 6
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1986

Point contact silicon solar cells

The construction of a 22.2% efficient single-crystal silicon solar cell fabricated at Stanford University is described. The cell dimensions were 3 x 5 mm and 100 microns thick with a base lifetime of 500 microseconds. The cell featured light trapping between a texturized top surface and a reflective bottom surface, small point contact diffusions, alternating between n-type and p-type in a polka-dot pattern on the bottom surface, and a surface passivation on all surfaces between contact regions.

Swanson, R. M.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Surface recombination velocity measurement for silicon solar cells

For the design and fabrication of silicon solar cells approaching theoretical ultimate conversion efficiencies, surface recombination velocity plays a crucial role. A technique using a scanning electron microscope with pulsed electron beam has been developed for thy measurement of this important parameter for silicon surfaces. It is shown that the surface recombination velocity(s) increases by an order of magnitude when a freshly etched sample is left out for a few hours, presumably due to generation of surface states. A textured front surface field (FSF) cell with a high-low junction near the surface shows the effect of minority carrier reflection and an apparent reduction of s, whereas a tandem junction (TJ) cell with n+-p junction near the surface gives larger s value.

Daud, T.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Deposition and characterization of ZnS/Si heterojunctions produced by vacuum evaporation

Isotype heterojunctions of ZnS (lattice constant 5.41 A) were grown on silicon (lattice constant 5.43 A) p-n junctions to form a minority-carrier mirror. The deposition process was vacuum evaporation from a ZnS powder source onto a heated (450 C) substrate. Both planar (100) and textured (111) surfaces were used. A reduction of the minority-carrier recombination at the surface was seen from increased short-wavelength quantum response and increased illuminated open-circuit voltage. The minority-carrier diffusion length was not degraded by the process.

Landis, Geoffrey A.↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electronic, direct optical, and phonon-assisted optical properties of 4H Si from first principles

The cubic polytype of silicon (Si) is the most commercialized semiconductor material and finds applications in numerous electronic and optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells. However, recent reports on the synthesis of the hexagonal 4H Si polytype have attracted the attention of the scientific community to understand its functional properties. Here, we report the electronic, vibrational, and optical properties of the 4H Si polytype obtained with predictive first-principles calculations, with an emphasis of phonon-assisted absorption in the indirect regime. Compared to the cubic polytype, 4H Si shows a slightly narrower indirect gap by ∼0.05 eV. The calculated phonon-assisted optical spectra show that 4H Si exhibits a stronger absorption coefficient than cubic Si across the visible and IR spectral regions. We further evaluate the short-circuit current density of textured thin-films. We demonstrate that 4H Si can achieve the same short-circuit current density for a five times thinner film compared to the cubic polytype, which mainly resulted from absorption in the indirect gap regime. Our work demonstrates the advantages of 4H Si for thin-film silicon-based solar-cell applications.

Materials Science↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sub-10 nm Probing of Ferroelectricity in Heterogeneous Materials by Machine Learning Enabled Contact Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy

Reducing the dimensions of ferroelectric materials down to the nanoscale has strong implications on the ferroelectric polarization pattern and on the ability to switch the polarization. As the size of ferroelectric domains shrinks to the nanometer scale, the heterogeneity of the polarization pattern becomes increasingly pronounced, enabling a large variety of possible polar textures in nanocrystalline and nanocomposite materials. Critical to the understanding of fundamental physics of such materials and hence their applications in electronic nanodevices is the ability to investigate their ferroelectric polarization at the nanoscale in a nondestructive way. We show that contact Kelvin probe force microscopy (cKPFM) combined with a k-means response clustering algorithm enables to measure the ferroelectric response at a mapping resolution of 8 nm. In a BaTiO 3 thin film on silicon composed of tetragonal and hexagonal nanocrystals, we determine a nanoscale lateral distribution of discrete ferroelectric response clusters, fully consistent with the nanostructure determined by transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, we apply this data clustering method to the cKPFM responses measured at different temperatures, which allows us to follow the corresponding change in the polarization pattern as the Curie temperature is approached and across the phase transition. This work opens up perspectives for mapping complex ferroelectric polarization textures such as curled/swirled polar textures that can be stabilized in epitaxial heterostructures and more generally for mapping the polar domain distribution of any spatially highly heterogeneous ferroelectric materials.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
NASA NTRS1982

Development of a new low cost antireflective coating technique for solar cells

The goal of this study was the development of an antireflective (AR) coating technique that has the potential for high throughput and low cost yet is capable of producing films of good optical quality. Previous efforts to develop sprayed AR coatings had utilized titanium isopropoxide mixed with volatile solvents. These films worked well on smooth surfaces but when applied to etched semi-crystalline silicon surfaces yielded inconsistent results with more than 20 percent of the AM1 incident light being reflected. In this program titanium isopropoxide was sprayed directly onto heater wafers (410 C) to produce a uniform AR coating even on highly textured surfaces. Tests on various types of solar cells yielded performance improvements for the hot sprayed AR cells that are equivalent to that observed for evaporated TiOx AR coated cells. As an extension of this effort a new double layer AR consisting of a bottom layer of hot sprayed titanium isopropoxide and a top layer of hot sprayed aluminum isopropoxide in methylene chloride has resulted in more than 10 percent improvement in cell output as compared to a single layer AR cell.

Wohlgemuth, J. H.↗
DOE OSTI2022

Compositionally graded aluminum-silicon alloy fabricated via friction extrusion

Herein, a novel solid-phase gradient alloying technique was developed for a high throughput composition-microstructure-mechanical property assessment. Friction extrusion of a two-piece billet setup facilitated the formation of a seamless compositionally graded aluminum (Al)-silicon (Si) extrudate rod, with Si concentration in Al matrix gradually increasing from ~1 at% at one end to ~7 at% at the other end of the rod. We observed a strong dependence of the Al grain size, morphology, and texture on the Si concentration. The Si particles pinned the recrystallized grain boundaries resulting in refined (< 10 µm) and textured grains in the high Si content region, while the Al grains in the low Si region are equiaxed, randomly textured, and with a larger average size (~50 µm). The hardness of Al-Si gradient extrudate increases by ~50% percent with a 6 at% increase in Si content due to Hall Petch and particle strengthening effects. Our approach demonstrates the use of a solid phase processing technique to successfully produce a defect-free continuously compositionally graded bulk components thus overcoming the limitations of porosity and material heterogeneities commonly observed in other techniques such as by additive laser deposition.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

Electric current–assisted direct joining of silicon carbide

Conventional direct joining technologies are difficult to use with silicon carbide (SiC) materials, especially for fiber composite forms of SiC, because of the harsh conditions required. Therefore, to reduce the temperature and/or process time required for the direct joining process, an electric current–assisted joining (ECAJ) method was studied. Joining of low–resistivity grade, nitrogen doped β-SiC was demonstrated at a relatively low nominal temperature of 1750 °C with a 10 min hold by enhancing the passage of current through the material. The joining mechanism is discussed in terms of localized overheating and accelerated self-diffusion at the interface. In the case of joining at 2160 °C for 1 min, rapid crystal growth of textured SiC was found at the interface. This study indicates that rapid ECAJ-based direct joining is a practical and appropriate method for joining SiC-based materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
NASA NTRS1979

Thin silicon-solar cell fabrication

Flexible silicon slices of uniform thicknesses are fabricated by etching in sodium hydroxide solution. Maintaining uniform thickness across slices during process(fabrication) is important for cell strength and resistance to damage in handling. Slices formed by procedure have reproducible surface with fine orange peel texture, and are far superior to slices prepared by other methods.

Lindmayer, J.↗
NASA NTRS1975

Current status of silicon solar cell technology

Recent advances in solar cell technology have led to the development of laboratory cells with efficiencies above 15% and production cells with efficiencies in the area of 13%. The increased output is largely the result of increases in the short-circuit current. The most significant gain in the amount of light entering the cell has been obtained through surface texturing by chemical etching techniques. Sheet resistances resulting from phosphorus diffusion in the 800 C temperature range yield junction depths on the order of 0.1 micrometer, leading to significant increases in the blue region of the cell spectral response. The inclusion of a back surface field in 10 ohm-cm cells has produced an increase in open-circuit voltage of about 50 mV and an increase in the minority carrier lifetime. It appears that a low emitter efficiency of the diffused region is the cause of poor voltages. Future research will be primarily directed toward correcting this deficiency and toward the development of low cost production methods.

Brandhorst, H. W., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1979

High efficiency cell geometry

A new silicon solar cell is described which has an array of small-area conduction paths to transport current directly through the wafer to metal electrodes on the back. This design eliminates grid shadowing and many of the other losses inherent in conventional cells. Early experimental units without texturing or antireflection coatings show 13.3% efficiency under air-mass-one illumination insolation.

Hall, R. N.↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Phosphate Textural Diversity in CI Chondrites and C-Type Asteroids

Introduction: Apatite, Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 (CL/F/OH-), is a ubiquitous phosphate found throughout the solar system, including the most primitive solids, CI-chondrites [1,2] and related samples of carbonaceous asteroids Ryugu [3] and Bennu [4], returned by JAXA’s Hayabusa2 and NASA’s OSIRIS-REx missions, respectively. Apatite in these primitive solids is found as individual grains or mineral clusters and has been inferred to form from the hydrothermal sequence during cooling of their respective parent body or bodies. To better understand the formation history and reworking of these early phosphates we have undertaken a highly coordinated study of phosphate microstructures, geochemistry and U/Pb geochronology from a suite of CI meteorites and carbonaceous asteroid samples. These data have identified novel phosphate microstructures and complex relationships across a suite of apatite grains from the early solar system, indicating multiple episodes of growth and modification on the CI parent body(ies). Methods: Samples of CI chondrites, Alais, Ivuna, Orgueil, Oued Chebeika 002, Yamato (Y) 82162, Y980115, Y980134, and two chips of Hayabusa2 Ryugu particles (A0262 and C0263) have been acquired for analysis. The bulk texture of the samples were first scanned by X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT) using the Nikon XT H 320 within the XFACT facility at NASA JSC or the Xradia 620 Versa at the UTCT facility. Based on the identification of petrofabrics or features of interest from the XCT data, samples were chipped, oriented, potted in epoxy and thick sections were prepared. After anhydrously polishing the samples with silicon carbide and dry diamond powder down to 1 µm, the samples were ion polished using a Hitachi ArBlade. Energy dispersive Xray spectrometry (EDS) maps were collected to ID phosphates of interest using a JEOL 7900F SEM. The internal microstructures of identified phosphates were then mapped by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) using the JEOL 7900F. Based on the EDS and EBSD data, domains of interest were targeted for quantitative chemical analyses using a JEOL 8530 EPMA. Subsequently, in situ U-Pb and 207 Pb/ 206 Pb ages will be collected using a Cameca ims1290 secondary ion mass spectrometer at UCLA across a range of microstructures. Results: Apatite grains are ubiquitous throughout the CI chondrites and carbonaceous asteroid materials, found as individual grains, disseminated clusters or grain aggregates. Apatite grains are associated with serpentine, magnet-ite, and/or carbonate. Of particular interest, we have identified individual and aggregate polycrystalline grains ex-hibiting an internal ‘honeycomb’ texture (Fig. 1). Some of these grains appear overprinted by subsequent alteration while others remain unaltered. Apatite halogen sites are dominated by the missing component, assumed to be OH, and F, comparable to published values from Bennu, Ryugu and CM-chondrites [3-5]. However, the Yamato CI-like meteorites show a broader range of Cl values, and one grain from Alais is dominated by CL. Summary: Apatite growth features indicate a protracted and complex growth history, consistent with precipitation from an evolving fluid system. The ‘honeycomb’ texture identified in some CI meteorites is, to the best of our knowledge, the first report of such a microstructure in meteoritic phosphate. The microtextures and zoning will guide subsequent age analyses, to better constrain the formation and reworking of phosphate in CI(-like) materials. Acknowledgments: We thank the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan for samples of Y82162, 980115 and 980134 meteorites, ASU’s Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies for samples of Ivuna and Alais meteorites, and JAXA curation for chips of Ryugu material. This work was funded by NASA ROSES LARS grant 24-LARS24-0014. References: [1] Morlok et al., 2016, GCA 70:5371-5394. [2] Alfin g et al., 2019, Geochemistry 79:125532. [3] Nakamura et al. (2022) Science 379:1-15. [4] Seifert et al. (2026) MAPS 61:504-521. [5] Piralla et al. (2021) MAPS 56:809-828.

CI chondrites↗
NASA NTRS1985

New high-efficiency silicon solar cells

A design for silicon solar cells was investigated as an approach to increasing the cell open-circuit voltage and efficiency for flat-plate terrestrial photovoltaic applications. This deviates from past designs, where either the entire front surface of the cell is covered by a planar junction or the surface is textured before junction formation, which results in an even greater (up to 70%) junction area. The heavily doped front region and the junction space charge region are potential areas of high recombination for generated and injected minority carriers. The design presented reduces junction area by spreading equidiameter dot junctions across the surface of the cell, spaced about a diffusion length or less from each other. Various dot diameters and spacings allowed variations in total junction area. A simplified analysis was done to obtain a first-order design optimization. Efficiencies of up to 19% can be obtained. Cell fabrication involved extra masking steps for selective junction diffusion, and made surface passivation a key element in obtaining good collection. It also involved photolithography, with line widths down to microns. A method is demonstrated for achieving potentially high open-circuit voltages and solar-cell efficiencies.

Daud, T.↗
DOE OSTI2020

Revealing the Nano-Scale Structure and Properties of Pinholes in SiOx Layers for POLO Contacts

In this contribution, we report on the charge collection characteristics of silicon photovoltaic devices with passivated contacts based on the c-Si/SiOx /poly-Si structure. Using electron-beam induced current (EBIC) imaging in plan-view and cross-section orientations, we find that charge collection in a device with a 1.5-nm-thick SiOx layer is fairly uniform in the p-n junction region and does not appear to be influenced by pyramidal surface texture. In contrast, a device with a 2.2-nm-thick oxide layer shows significant spatial variation in the charge-collection signal. The locations where we observe preferential collection of excess carriers is very sensitive to the processing conditions used to grow and breakup the SiOx passivation layer. In some cases the apexes of the pyramids exhibit reduced EBIC signal as the valleys between adjacent pyramids show the strongest collection. Other conditions yield enhanced charge collection at well defined spots on pyramid faces with no observable collection in the valleys.

EBIC↗
NASA NTRS1978

Effect of multiblade slurry saw induced damage on silicon solar cells

A correlation between the optimum etch loss and the depth of damage is established using wafers produced by the Multiblade Slurry (MBS) and the Internal Diameter (ID) saws. The observations are based on the measurement of the performance of solar cells fabricated on these wafers. Sample preparation and test results are described and the following conclusions are made: (1) the amount of silicon removal necessary for optimum solar cell performance coincides with the depth of saw-induced damage; (2) optimization of cell performance is not affected by the method of silicon removal; (3) sawing conditions should be optimized to minimize the extent of saw-induced damage; (4) the MBS saw is found to induce damage to a lesser extent; (5) since the extent of damage in MBS-sawn wafers is in the limit of etch loss required in texture etching, it is possible to achieve optimum improvement in cell performance by merely texture etching the surface of as-sawn wafers.

Daud, T.↗
NASA NTRS1995

Collection and review of metals data obtained from LDEF experiment specimens and support hardware

LDEF greatly extended the range of data available for metals exposed to the low-Earth-orbital environment. The effects of low-Earth-orbital exposure on metals include meteoroid and debris impacts, solar ultraviolet radiation, thermal cycling, cosmic rays, solar particles, and surface oxidation and contamination. This paper is limited to changes in surface composition and texture caused by oxidation and contamination. Surface property changes afford a means to study the environments (oxidation and contamination) as well as in-space stability of metal surfaces. We compare thermal-optical properties for bare aluminum and anodized aluminum clamps flown on LDEF. We also show that the silicon observed on the LDEF tray clamps and tray clamp bolt heads is not necessarily evidence of silicon contamination of LDEF from the shuttle. The paper concludes with a listing of LDEF reports that have been published thus far that contain significant findings concerning metals.

Bourassa, Roger↗
DOE OSTI2020

High-efficiency solar thermophotovoltaic system using a nanostructure-based selective emitter

Herein, we present the design, fabrication, optimization, and experimental results of a high-efficiency planar solar thermophotovoltaic (STPV) system utilizing a micro-textured absorber and a nanostructure multilayer metal-dielectric coated selective emitter fabricated on a tungsten (W) substrate. Light absorptance of more than 90% was achieved at visible and near-infrared wavelengths using the microtextured absorbing surface. The nanostructure selective emitter consists of two thin-film optical coatings of silicon nitride (Si3N4) and a layer of W in between to increase the surface emissivity in spectral regimes matching the quantum efficiency of the thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cells. Gallium antimonide (GaSb)-based TPV cells are used in our STPV design. The experiment was conducted at different operating temperatures using a high-power continuous wave laser diode stack as a simulated source of concentrated incident radiation. Our experimental setup measured a maximum electrical output power density of 1.71 W/cm 2 at 1676 K STPV temperature, and the overall power conversion efficiency of 8.4% after normalizing the output power density to the emitter area. This is the highest STPV system efficiency reported so far for any experimental STPV device. The incident optical laser power on the absorber side was 131 W. This is equivalent to a solar concentration factor of ~2100, which is within the practical limit and readily achievable with Fresnel lens setup.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Large magnetoelectric resistance in the topological Dirac semimetal α-Sn

The spin-momentum locking of surface states in topological materials can produce a resistance that scales linearly with magnetic and electric fields. Such a bilinear magnetoelectric resistance (BMER) effect offers a new approach for information reading and field sensing applications, but the effects demonstrated so far are too weak or for low temperatures. This article reports the first observation of BMER effects in topological Dirac semimetals; the BMER responses were measured at room temperature and were substantially stronger than those reported previously. The experiments used topological Dirac semimetal α-Sn thin films grown on silicon substrates. The films showed BMER responses that are 10 6 times larger than previously measured at room temperature and are also larger than those previously obtained at low temperatures. These results represent a major advance toward realistic BMER applications. Significantly, the data also yield the first characterization of three-dimensional Fermi-level spin texture of topological surface states in α-Sn.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗