Photonic Systems for Crystalline Silicon and Thin-Film Photovoltaic Manufacturing

In this chapter, we will discuss the impact that photonics have on photovoltaic (PV) manufacturing. The broad eld of photonics is now commonly thought to encompass classical optics (Hecht, 2001), nanophotonics (Joannopoulos et al., 2007), and metamaterials (Cai and Shalaev, 2009). Over the last few decades, photonic technology has become an increasingly integral part of PV manufacturing, both in the crystalline silicon and thin-lm arenas.