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Article | REF: D3940 V1

Photovoltaic modules - Technology courses

Author: Alain RICAUD

Publication date: May 10, 2005, Review date: February 3, 2025 | Lire en français

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    3. Amorphous and microcrystalline silicon sectors

    Amorphous materials, unlike crystals, do not have a regular atomic organization, at least over long distances. In fact, a local order is preserved. In amorphous silicon, the chemical bonds between a Si atom and its nearest neighbors satisfy the tetrahedral configuration characteristic of sp 3 hybridization, where each atom is linked to its four neighbors (0.23 nm apart) by a covalent Si-Si bond. In covalent compounds and amorphous chalcogenides, interatomic bond lengths and bond angles vary slightly around average crystal values. This dispersion increases with distance, so that as soon as the distance to a given atom exceeds four to five interatomic distances, the positions are randomly distributed and a significant fraction of covalent bonds are cut, so electrons are unpaired. Such atoms are said to have a dangling bond. This dangling bond...

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