ABSTRACT
Harnessing the massive amounts of energy of sunlight that reaches the Earth’s surface is challenging, but the future energy needs of our planet must be ensured. Semiconductor material combines the properties of metals and insulators with materials that uniquely convert sunlight into electricity. Semiconductor materials are the most important parts of a solar cell. This chapter provides a summary of semiconductor materials properties using Si as an example, addressing carrier concentration, doping, transport properties, recombination, optical properties of light absorber materials, and the quantum efficiency that control the conversion between light and electricity. In semiconductors, doping is defined as replacing c-Si atoms with other elements to manipulate electron and hole concentrations. Electrons in the conduction band and holes in the valence band are considered “free” carriers because they can move randomly throughout the semiconductor lattice.
