Inorganic thin film materials for solar cell applications

Due to the global concerns on the depletion of fossil fuels and the negative effect of their use in environmental pollution and climate change, renewable energy resources are increasingly in demand. Global solar power generation has almost doubled during the last 2 years with countries, such as China, leading the way with huge investments. The first generation of solar cells are either single or multi crystalline silicon, and still have 59% market share; the second (amorphous silicon, copper indium gallium selenide, and cadmium telluride) is approaching in terms of cost and efficiency; and the third (dye sensitized solar cells, organic photovoltaic, quantum dots, and perovskite) all show promise yet are still to come to market. However, future solar cells (using copper oxide and zinc oxide) featuring the regular intrusion of one junction layer into the other in order to massively improve junction contact area are of particular promise.