1.0 Introduction
Formation of solar cell using semi-conductor material is the act of using a semi-conductor to build a cell that can generate electricity when light (photons) falls on it. in the field of electrical and electronics engineering a semi-conductor simply means those materials whose conductivity lies somewhere between that of pure conductors and insulators. They are neither good conductors nor good insulators at normal room temperature (25oc). They are insulators at very low temperatures and good conductors at high temperature.
The Germanium (Ge) and silicon (Si) elements are the most important semi-conductor used in electronics.
A pure type of semi-conductor without doping is called an intrinsic semi-conductor, while extrinsic semiconductor is the one with doping. Where doping is the intentional addition of impurities to semi-conductors so as to increase its conductivity. For instance using silicon. When a silicon is doped with boron the resulting type is P-type, while if with phosphorous the resulting type is N-type. Hence solar cell has two parts the N-type and P-type side. And without this electric field, the cell would not work and this field forms when the N-type and P-type silicon are in contact.
Hence the electrons form the N-type side will rush to fill up the hole in the P-type side. Then when light in form of photons falls on the solar cell the energy frees electrons-hole pairs, with the presence of the electric field the electrons are caused to flow in a particular direction. Hence electric current is provided and the cells electric filed causes a voltage flow. Therefore the product of this voltage and the current gives the power.
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