Thin‐film solar cells: an overview

Abstract Thin film solar cells (TFSC) are a promising approach for terrestrial and space photovoltaics and offer a wide variety of choices in terms of the device design and fabrication. A variety of substrates (flexible or rigid, metal or insulator) can be used for deposition of different layers (contact, buffer, absorber, reflector, etc.) using different techniques (PVD, CVD, ECD, plasma‐based, hybrid, etc.). Such versatility allows tailoring and engineering of the layers in order to improve device performance. For large‐area devices required for realistic applications, thin‐film device fabrication becomes complex and requires proper control over the entire process sequence. Proper understanding of thin‐film…