http://www.hindawi.comThe latest articles from Hindawi Publishing Corporation© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/467145Yalin Lu, Hiroshi Murata, and Chang-Qing Xu© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/587091The detection of an optical signal modulated at 15 GHz was demonstrated experimentally by using difference frequency generation based on a second-order nonlinear optical effect in a periodically poled LiTaO3 microwave rectangular waveguide. The measured frequency dependence of the generated microwave signal was in good agreement with the theoretically expected result. An interesting application of the proposed device is the detection of high-speed optical clock detection.Hiroshi Murata and Yasuyuki Okamura© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/654280Optical waveguides were fabricated on z-cut stoichiometric LiTaO3 (SLT) by using the proton-exchange method. The surface index change for the extraordinary ray on the SLT substrate resulting from the proton exchange was 0.017, which coincided well with congruent LiTaO3 substrates. The proton exchange coefficient in the SLT was 0.25×10−12 cm2/s. The application of the SLT waveguide to a quasi-velocity-matched travelling-wave electrooptic modulator with periodically polarization-reversed structure is also reported.Hiroshi Murata and Yasuyuki Okamura© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/752847We estimate the phase velocity of a modulation microwave in a quasi-velocity-matched (QVM) electro-optic (EO) phase modulator (QVM-EOM) using EO sampling which is accurate and the most reliable technique for measuring voltage waveforms at an electrode. The substrate of the measured QVM-EOM is a stoichiometric periodically domain-inverted LiTaO3 crystal. The electric field of a standing wave in a resonant microstrip line (width: 0.5 mm, height: 0.5 mm) is measured by employing a CdTe crystal as an EO sensor. The wavelength of the traveling microwave at 16.0801 GHz is determined as 3.33 mm by fitting the theoretical curve to the measured electric field distribution. The phase velocity is estimated as vm=5.35×107 m/s, though there exists about 5% systematic error due to the perturbation by the EO sensor. Relative dielectric constant of εr=41.5 is led as the maximum likelihood value that derives the estimated phase velocity.Shintaro Hisatake, Akira Kaino, Tomoaki Yasuda, and Tadao Nagatsuma© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/421054MgO:LiNbO3 is an attractive nonlinear-optic crystal for quasiphasematched (QPM) nonlinear-optic devices. This paper reports a new formation method of domain-inverted gratings for QPM in MgO:LiNbO3. Domain inversion of MgO:LiNbO3 by voltage application under UV light was characterized, and reduction of the voltage required for inversion was demonstrated. Results of voltage application under periodic UV light suggested that suppression of excess lateral expansion of the domain inverted regions on −Z surface was crucial for domain-inverted grating formation. Voltage application to a crystal with a photoconductive cladding layer under periodic UV light was proposed. The cladding layer suppressed the expansion, and the domain-inverted gratings with period of 18 μm and area of 25×5  mm2 were obtained. The formation method does not require the photolithography process and allows the formation by voltage application at room temperature, and therefore, is quite simple and productive.Masatoshi Fujimura and Toshiaki Suhara© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/428971Noise characteristics of second-harmonic generation (SHG) in periodically poled lithium niobate (PPLN) using the quasiphase matching (QPM) technique are analyzed experimentally. In the experiment, a0.78 μm second-harmonic (SH) wave was generated when a 1.56 μm fundamental wave passed through a PPLN crystal (bulk or waveguide). The time-domain and frequency-domain noise characteristics of the fundamental and SH waves were analyzed. By using the pump-probe method, the noise characteristics of SHG were further analyzed when a visible light (532 nm) and an infrared light (1090 nm) copropagated with the fundamental light, respectively. The noise characterizations were also investigated at different temperatures. It is found that for the bulk and waveguide PPLN crystals, the SH wave has a higher relative noise level than the corresponding fundamental wave. For the same fundamental wave, the SH wave has lower noise in a bulk crystal than in a waveguide, and in MgO-doped PPLN than in undoped PPLN. The 532 nm irradiation can lead to higher noise in PPLN than the 1090 nm irradiation. In addition, increasing temperature of device can alleviate the problem of noise in conjunction with the photorefractive effect incurred by the irradiation light. This is more significant in undoped PPLN than in MgO-doped one.Yong Wang, Jorge Fonseca-Campos, Wan-guo Liang, Chang-Qing Xu, and Ignacio Vargas-Baca© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/151487908 mW of green light at 532 nm were generated by intracavity quasiphase matching in a bulk periodically poled MgO:LiNbO3 (PPMgLN) crystal. A maximum optical-to-optical conversion efficiency of 33.5% was obtained from a 0.5 mm thick, 10 mm long, and 5 mol% MgO:LiNbO3 crystal with an end-pump power of 2.7 W at 808 nm. The temperature bandwidth between the intracavity and single-pass frequency doubling was found to be different for the PPMgLN. Reliability and stability of the green laser were evaluated. It was found that for continuous operation of 100 hours, the output stability was better than 97.5% and no optical damage was observed.Shaowei Chu, Ying Zhang, Bin Wang, and Yong Bi© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/956908We have experimentally demonstrated an efficient all-fiber passively Q-switched Yb-doped fiber laser with Samarium doped fiber as a saturable absorber. Average output power of 3.4 W at a repetition rate of 250 kHz and a pulse width of 1.1 microseconds was obtained at a pump power of 9.0 W. By using this fiber laser system and an MgO-doped congruent periodically poled lithium niobate (MgO:c-PPLN), second harmonic generation (SHG) output at 532 nm was achieved at room temperature. The conversion efficiency is around 4.2% which agrees well with the theoretical simulation.Yi Gan, Xijia Gu, Joyce Y. C. Koo, Wanguo Liang, and Chang-qing Xu© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/948614An oxide-based multilayer structure was proposed to realize negative refraction. The multilayer composes of alternative layers having negative permittivity and negative permeability, respectively. In order to realize negative refraction, their dielectric and magnetic resonances of layers will be tuned to the frequency as close as possibly via changing their temperature, composition, structure, and so forth. Such oxide-based NIMs are attractive for their potential applications as optical super lenses, imagers, optical cloaking, sensors, and so forth, those are required with low-loss, low-cost, and good fabrication flexibility.Yalin Lu, Gail J. Brown, and Kitt Reinhardt© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/208458Nonlinear frequency conversion remains one of the dominant approaches to efficiently generate THz waves. Significant material absorption in the THz range is the main factor impeding the progress towards this direction. In this research, a new multicladding nonlinear fiber design was proposed to solve this problem, and as the major experimental effort, periodic domain structure was introduced into lithium niobate single-crystal fibers by electrical poling. The introduced periodic domain structures were nondestructively revealed using a crossly polarized optical microscope and a confocal scanning optical microscope for quality assurance.Yalin Lu and Kitt Reinhardt© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/948294We discuss a new method to design traveling-wave electrooptic modulators with controlled frequency responses using nonperiodically polarization-reversed structure. Using our method, the frequency responses of both magnitude and phase of modulation index are controllable. Several electrooptic modulators for advanced modulation formats such as duobinary modulation and wideband single-sideband modulation are proposed.Ha Viet Pham, Hiroshi Murata, and Yasuyuki Okamura© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/759340One main efficiency loss in industrial solar cells is the shading of the cell caused by the metal front side contacts. With the aerosol-printing technique plus an additional light-induced plating (LIP) step, not only is the geometrical contact width narrowed compared to screen-printed contacts but also the shape of the finger changes. In this work, the effective shading of different finger types is analysed with two different measurement methods. The essential parameter for characterising the finger is the effective width which can be reduced drastically compared to the geometrical width due to total internal reflection at the glass-air layer and the reflection from the roundish edges of the contact fingers into the cell. This parameter was determined with different methods. It could be shown that for aerosol-printed fingers the effective (optical) width is only 38% of its geometrical width, while for standard screen-printed fingers it is 47%. The measured values are compared to a theoretical model for an aerosol-printed and plated finger and are in good agreement.R. Woehl, M. Hörteis, and S. W. Glunz© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/485467A novel plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposited (PECVD) stack layer system consisting of a-SiOx:H, a-SiNx:H, and a-SiOx:H is presented for silicon solar cell rear side passivation. Surface recombination velocities below 60 cm/s (after firing) and below 30 cm/s (after forming gas anneal) were achieved. Solar cell precursors without front and rear metallisation showed implied open-circuit voltages Voc values extracted from quasi-steady-state photoconductance (QSSPC) measurements above 680 mV. Fully finished solar cells with up to 20.0% energy conversion efficiency are presented. A fit of the cell's internal quantum efficiency using software tool PC1D and a comparison to a full-area aluminium-back surface field (Al-BSF) and thermal SiO2 is shown. PECVD-ONO was found to be clearly superior to Al-BSF. A separation of recombination at the metallised and the passivated area at the solar cell's rear is presented using the equations of Fischer and Kray. Nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) has been used to evaluate the hydrogen depth profile of the passivation layer system at different stages.M. Hofmann, S. Kambor, C. Schmidt, D. Grambole, J. Rentsch, S. W. Glunz, and R. Preu© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/24521In 2006, around 86% of all wafer-based silicon solar cells were produced using screen printing to form the silver front and aluminium rear contacts and chemical vapour deposition to grow silicon nitride as the antireflection coating onto the front surface. This paper reviews this dominant solar cell technology looking into state-of-the-art equipment and corresponding processes for each process step. The main efficiency losses of this type of solar cell are analyzed to demonstrate the future efficiency potential of this technology. In research and development, more various advanced solar cell concepts have demonstrated higher efficiencies. The question which arises is “why are new solar cell concepts not transferred into industrial production more frequently?”. We look into the requirements a new solar cell technology has to fulfill to have an advantage over the current approach. Finally, we give an overview of high-efficiency concepts which have already been transferred into industrial production.Dirk-Holger Neuhaus and Adolf Münzer© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/60319Armin Aberle© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/781524We study the frequency spectrum of nanoemitters placed in a microsphere with a quasiperiodic subwavelength spherical stack. The spectral evolution of transmittancy at the change of thickness of two-layer blocks, constructed following the Fibonacci sequence, is investigated. When the number of layers (Fibonacci order) increases, the structure of spectrum acquires a fractal form. Our calculations show the radiation confinement and gigantic field enhancement, when the ratio of layers’ widths in twolayer blocks of the stack is close to the golden mean value.Gennadiy N. Burlak and A. Diaz-de-Anda© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2008/739135We describe a simple configuration in which the extraordinary optical transmission effect through subwavelength hole arrays in noble-metal films can be switched by the semiconductor-to-metal transition in an underlying thin film of vanadium dioxide. In these experiments, the transition is brought about by thermal heating of the bilayer film. The surprising reverse hysteretic behavior of the transmission through the subwavelength holes in the vanadium oxide suggest that this modulation is accomplished by a dielectric-matching condition rather than plasmon coupling through the bilayer film. The results of this switching, including the wavelength dependence, are qualitatively reproduced by a transfer matrix model. The prospects for effecting a similar modulation on a much faster time scale by using ultrafast laser pulses to trigger the semiconductor-to-metal transition are also discussed.E. U. Donev, J. Y. Suh, R. Lopez, L. C. Feldman, and R. F. Haglund Jr.© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/18619The low-cost chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique is used to prepare CBD-ZnS films as antireflective (AR) coating for multicrystalline silicon solar cells. The uniformity of CBD-ZnS film on large area of textured multicrystalline silicon surface is the major challenge of CBD technique. In the present work, attempts have been made for the first time to improve the rate of deposition and uniformity of deposited film by controlling film stoichiometry and refractive index and also to minimize reflection loss by proper optimization of molar percentage of different chemical constituents and deposition conditions. Reasonable values of film deposition rate (12.13 Å′/min.), good film uniformity (standard deviation <1), and refractive index (2.35) along with a low percentage of average reflection (6-7%) on a textured mc-Si surface are achieved with proper optimization of ZnS bath. 12.24% efficiency on large area (125 mm × 125 mm) multicrystalline silicon solar cells with CBD-ZnS antireflection coating has been successfully fabricated. The viability of low-cost CBD-ZnS antireflection coating on large area multicrystalline silicon solar cell in the industrial production level is emphasized.U. Gangopadhyay, K. Kim, S. K. Dhungel, H. Saha, and J. Yi© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/40285Solar cells based on organic semiconductors have attracted much attention. The thickness of the active layer of organic solar cells is typically only 100 nm thin, which is about 1000 times thinner than for crystalline silicon solar cells and still 10 times thinner than for current inorganic thin film cells. The low material consumption per area and the easy processing of organic semiconductors offer a huge potential for low cost large area solar cells. However, to compete with inorganic solar cells the efficiency of organic solar cells has to be improved by a factor of 2-3. Several organic semiconducting materials have been investigated so far, but the optimum material still has to be designed. Similar as for organic light emitting devices (OLED) small molecules are competing with polymers to become the material of choice. After a general introduction into the device structures and operational principles of organic solar cells the three different basic types (all polymer based, all small molecules based and small molecules mixed with polymers) are described in detail in this review. For each kind the current state of research is described and the best of class reported efficiencies are listed.Thomas Kietzke© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/83657The changes in open-circuit voltage (Voc), short-circuit current density (Jsc), and internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of aLuminum induced crystallization, ion-assisted deposition (ALICIA) polycrystalline silicon thin-film solar cells on low-temperature glass substrates due to rapid thermal anneal (RTA) treatment and subsequent remote microwave hydrogen plasma passivation (hydrogenation) are examined. Voc improvements from 130 mV to 430 mV, Jsc improvements from 1.2 mA/cm2 to 11.3 mA/cm2, and peak IQE improvements from 16% to > 70% are achieved. A 1-second RTA plateau at 1000°C followed by hydrogenation increases the Jsc by a factor of 5.5. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements are used to determine the concentration profiles of dopants, impurities, and hydrogen. Computer modeling based on simulations of the measured IQE data reveals that the minority carrier lifetime in the absorber region increases by 3 orders of magnitude to about 1 nanosecond (corresponding to a diffusion length of at least 1 μm) due to RTA and subsequent hydrogenation. The evaluation of the changes in the quantum efficiency and Voc due to RTA and hydrogenation with computer modeling significantly improves the understanding of the limiting factors to cell performance.Mason L. Terry, Daniel Inns, and Armin G. Aberle© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/46861We study the properties of various anisotropic left-handed slab waveguides. The analysis is extended to anisotropic μ-negative slab waveguides. The possible existence of the plasmon modes in various anisotropic slab waveguide configurations is discussed. An FDTD program is developed to investigate the potential device applications of these anisotropic structures. A new signal detector and a two-channel harmonic separator multiplexer are designed employing the μ-negative slab waveguide.Hamidreza Salehi, Sujeet K. Chaudhuri, and Raafat R. Mansour© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/36970We review the field of thin-film silicon solar cells with an active layer thickness of a few micrometers. These technologies can potentially lead to low cost through lower material costs than conventional modules, but do not suffer from some critical drawbacks of other thin-film technologies, such as limited supply of basic materials or toxicity of the components. Amorphous Si technology is the oldest and best established thin-film silicon technology. Amorphous silicon is deposited at low temperature with plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). In spite of the fundamental limitation of this material due to its disorder and metastability, the technology is now gaining industrial momentum thanks to the entry of equipment manufacturers with experience with large-area PECVD. Microcrystalline Si (also called nanocrystalline Si) is a material with crystallites in the nanometer range in an amorphous matrix, and which contains less defects than amorphous silicon. Its lower bandgap makes it particularly appropriate as active material for the bottom cell in tandem and triple junction devices. The combination of an amorphous silicon top cell and a microcrystalline bottom cell has yielded promising results, but much work is needed to implement it on large-area and to limit light-induced degradation. Finally thin-film polysilicon solar cells, with grain size in the micrometer range, has recently emerged as an alternative photovoltaic technology. The layers have a grain size ranging from 1 μm to several tens of microns, and are formed at a temperature ranging from 600 to more than 1000∘C. Solid Phase Crystallization has yielded the best results so far but there has recently been fast progress with seed layer approaches, particularly those using the aluminum-induced crystallization technique.Guy Beaucarne© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/29523The high efficiency of multijunction concentrator cells has the potential to revolutionize the cost structure of photovoltaic electricity generation. Advances in the design of metamorphic subcells to reduce carrier recombination and increase voltage, wide-band-gap tunnel junctions capable of operating at high concentration, metamorphic buffers to transition from the substrate lattice constant to that of the epitaxial subcells, concentrator cell AR coating and grid design, and integration into 3-junction cells with current-matched subcells under the terrestrial spectrum have resulted in new heights in solar cell performance. A metamorphic Ga0.44In0.56P/Ga0.92In0.08As/ Ge 3-junction solar cell from this research has reached a record 40.7% efficiency at 240 suns, under the standard reporting spectrum for terrestrial concentrator cells (AM1.5 direct, low-AOD, 24.0 W/cm2, 25∘C), and experimental lattice-matched 3-junction cells have now also achieved over 40% efficiency, with 40.1% measured at 135 suns. This metamorphic 3-junction device is the first solar cell to reach over 40% in efficiency, and has the highest solar conversion efficiency for any type of photovoltaic cell developed to date. Solar cells with more junctions offer the potential for still higher efficiencies to be reached. Four-junction cells limited by radiative recombination can reach over 58% in principle, and practical 4-junction cell efficiencies over 46% are possible with the right combination of band gaps, taking into account series resistance and gridline shadowing. Many of the optimum band gaps for maximum energy conversion can be accessed with metamorphic semiconductor materials. The lower current in cells with 4 or more junctions, resulting in lower I2R resistive power loss, is a particularly significant advantage in concentrator PV systems. Prototype 4-junction terrestrial concentrator cells have been grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy, with preliminary measured efficiency of 35.7% under the AM1.5 direct terrestrial solar spectrum at 256 suns.Richard R. King, Daniel C. Law, Kenneth M. Edmondson, Christopher M. Fetzer, Geoffrey S. Kinsey, Hojun Yoon, Dimitri D. Krut, James H. Ermer, Raed A. Sherif, and Nasser H. Karam© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/24584A new glass texturing method (AIT—aluminium-induced texturisation) has recently been developed by our group. In the present work, the potential of this method is explored by fabricating PLASMA poly-Si thin-film solar cells on glass superstrates that were textured with the AIT method. Using an interdigitated metallisation scheme with a full-area Al rear contact, PLASMA cells with an efficiency of up to 7% are realised. This promising result shows that the AIT glass texturing method is fully compatible with the fabrication of poly-Si thin-film solar cells on glass using solid phase crystallisation (SPC) of PECVD-deposited amorphous silicon precursor diodes. As such, there are now two distinctly different glass texturing methods—the AIT method and CSG Solar's glass bead method—that are known to be capable of producing efficient SPC poly-Si thin-film solar cells on glass.Per I. Widenborg and Armin G. Aberle© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/65073This review describes recent advances in the research on dye-sensitized solar cells. After a brief discussion of the general operation principles and a presentation of record efficiencies, stability data and key technology drivers, current trends will be reviewed. The focus of this review is on materials development (sensitizers, nanostructured oxide films, and electrolyte), but commercialization aspects will also be briefly addressed. The review describes the most relevant characteristics and major trends in a compact way.F. O. Lenzmann and J. M. Kroon© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/61034We review the simulation work for the far-field focus and dispersionless anticrossing bands in two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals. In a two-dimensional photonic-crystal-based concave lens, the far-field focus of a plane wave is given by the distance between the focusing point and the lens. Strong and good-quality far-field focusing of a transmitted wave, explicitly following the well-known wave-beam negative refraction law, can be achieved. The spatial frequency information of the Bloch mode in multiple Brillouin zones (BZs) is investigated in order to indicate the wave propagation in two different regions. When considering the photonic transmission in a 2D photonic crystal composed of a negative phase-velocity medium (NPVM), it is shown that the dispersionless anticrossing bands are generated by the couplings among the localized surface polaritons of the NPVM rods. The photonic band structures of the NPVM photonic crystals are characterized by a topographical continuous dispersion relationship accompanied by many anticrossing bands.Xiaoshuang Chen, Renlong Zhou, Yong Zeng, Hongbo Chen, and Wei Lu© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/97545Thin-film photovoltaic modules based on Cu-In-Ga-Se-S (CIS) and CdTe are already being produced with high-quality and solar conversion efficiencies of around 10%, with values up to 14% expected in the near future. The integrated interconnection of single cells into large-area modules of 0.6×1.2m2 enables low-cost mass production, so that thin-film modules will soon be able to compete with conventional silicon-wafer-based modules. This contribution provides an overview of the basic technologies for CdTe and CIS modules, the research and development (R&D) issues, production technology and capacities, the module performance in long-term outdoor testing, and their use in installations.Michael Powalla and Dieter Bonnet© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/35383Sliver cells are thin, single-crystal silicon solar cells fabricated using standard fabrication technology. Sliver modules, composed of several thousand individual Sliver cells, can be efficient, low-cost, bifacial, transparent, flexible, shadow tolerant, and lightweight. Compared with current PV technology, mature Sliver technology will need 10% of the pure silicon and fewer than 5% of the wafer starts per MW of factory output. This paper deals with two distinct challenges related to Sliver cell and Sliver module production: providing a mature and robust Sliver cell fabrication method which produces a high yield of highly efficient Sliver cells, and which is suitable for transfer to industry; and, handling, electrically interconnecting, and encapsulating billions of sliver cells at low cost. Sliver cells with efficiencies of 20% have been fabricated at ANU using a reliable, optimised processing sequence, while low-cost encapsulation methods have been demonstrated using a submodule technique.Evan Franklin, Vernie Everett, Andrew Blakers, and Klaus Weber© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/75384We introduced the structure and the principle of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC). The latest results about the critical technology and the industrialization research on dye-sensitized solar cells were reviewed. The development of key components, including nanoporous semiconductor films, dye sensitizers, redox electrolyte, counter electrode, and conducting substrate in dye-sensitized solar cells was reviewed in detail. The developing progress and prospect of dye-sensitized solar cells from small cells in the laboratory to industrialization large-scale production were reviewed. At last, the future development of DSC was prospective for the tendency of dye-sensitized solar cells.Fan-Tai Kong, Song-Yuan Dai, and Kong-Jia Wang© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.http://www.hindawi.com/GetArticle.aspx?doi=10.1155/2007/97370The current cost distribution of a crystalline silicon PV module is clearly dominated by material costs, especially by the costs of the silicon wafer. Therefore cell designs that allow the use of thinner wafers and the increase of energy conversion efficiency are of special interest to the PV industry. This article gives an overview of the most critical issues to achieve this aim and of the recent activities at Fraunhofer ISE and other institutes.S. W. Glunz© 2008, Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.