Material costs will continually push photovoltaics to ever increasing efficiency to take advantage of the cost leverage thereby available. Although a range of "third generation" approaches have been suggested for improving cell efficiency beyond that of a single cell, the tandem cell approach is the only one yet to have demonstrated improved experimental performance. The reliability of silicon wafer-based modules is well established. However, there are no obvious candidates for suitable high-bandgap cells to use with silicon in a tandem device that would not, to some extent, compromise this reliability and stability or depend upon toxic or scarce elements. This work seeks to engineer wide-bandgap silicon-based materials by using quantum-confinement in silicon quantum dots or quantum dots from other Group IV elements dispersed in a matrix of silicon carbide, nitride or oxide.
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