Advanced solar materials for thin-film photovoltaic cells

As one of the most promising solutions for the green energy, thin-film photovoltaic cell technology is still immature and far from large-scale industrialization. The major issue is getting low cost and stable module efficiency. To solve these problems, a large amount of advanced solar materials have been developed to improve all parts of solar cell modules. Here, some new solar material developments applied in different critical parts of chalcogenide thin-film photovoltaic cells are reviewed. The main efforts are focused on improving light trapping and antireflection, internal quantum efficiency and collection of photo-generated carriers.