ABSTRACT
Major advances have been made in recent years on the performance efficiency of thin film photovoltaic materials and devices based on the ternary and multinary compounds derived from the II-VI and III-V semiconductors. Most notable among these classes of materials are the multinary compounds like Cu(GaIn)(SSe)2 and ternary material like GaInP2. World record efficiencies have been achieved at NREL and elsewhere in devices based on both of these materials. However, there exists a class of new multinary materials which, in principle, has the potential for applications in fabrication of low cost, environmentally benign photovoltaic devices. Many of these materials have hardly been explored. In this paper a brief overview of the current status of ternary semiconductors in photovoltaics and the future opportunities for research on new materials and devices will be presented.
