A semi-metallic chemical element that makes an excellent semiconductor material for photovoltaic devices.

It crystallizes in face-centered cubic lattice like a diamond. It's commonly found in sand and quartz (as the oxide).

1. A thin-film, silicon photovoltaic cell having no crystalline structure.

Manufactured by depositing layers of doped silicon on a substrate.

2. An alloy of silica and hydrogen with a disordered, noncrystalline internal atomic arrangement.

It can be deposited in thin-film layers by a number of deposition methods to produce photovoltaic cells on glass, metal, or plastic substrates.

A type of photovoltaic cell made from a slice of single-crystal silicon or polycrystalline silicon.

Amorphous silicon with a small amount of incorporated hydrogen.

The hydrogen neutralizes dangling bonds in the amorphous silicon, allowing charge carriers to flow more freely.

A product created by the heating of high-purity silica in an electric arc furnace: To produce metallurgical grade silicon the enclosed chamber must have at temperature over 1900 degrees Centigrade using carbon electrodes, producing a material that is at least 99% pure.

Silicon material that has been doped with a material that has more electrons in its atomic structure than silicon.

1. A semiconductor to which an impurity has been added so the concentration of electrons is much higher than the concentration of holes; the electrical current is carried chiefly by these electrons.
2. Negative semiconductor material in which there are more electrons than holes; current is carried through it by the flow of electrons.

A material used to make photovoltaic cells, which consist of many crystals unlike single-crystal silicon.