U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Solar Energy Technologies Program

The Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell

PV cells can be made of many different semiconductors. But we'll use crystalline silicon as an example, for three reasons. First, crystalline silicon was the material used in the earliest successful PV devices. Second, and more important, it's still the most widely used PV material. And third, although other PV materials and designs exploit the photoelectric effect in slightly different ways, if you know how the effect works in crystalline silicon, then you'll have a basic understanding of how it works in all PV devices.

See these pages for more information on crystalline silicon solar cells:

• Atomic Description
• Bandgap Energies
• Built-In Electric Field
• Absorption and Conduction
• Electrical Contacts
• Antireflective Coating

To learn more about PV physics, see:

• The Photoelectric Effect
• Light and the PV Cell
• PV Performance