Dear Colleagues,

A number of modern global problems (increased global energy consumption, climate change, the exhaustibility of natural resources, their growing cost, safety problems in nuclear energetics) have led to a significant increase in the importance of renewable energy in almost all spheres of human life. Solar energy is seen as the most promising source of electricity generation among other renewable sources. Today, photovoltaics is a large, fast-growing market in the global economy. Over the past decade, the cumulative installed capacity of solar modules on Earth has increased by more than 15 times, reaching a value of 700 GW. Silicon is, by far, the most common semiconductor material used in photovoltaics. The main advantages of this semiconductor material include the practically inexhaustible reserves of cheap raw silicon materials available for its production, its environmental friendliness, and the high level of development of modern electronics technologies based on a silicon element base. Silicon photovoltaics currently accounts for approximately 95% of the global photovoltaic market share.

Thin-film technologies are the basis of thin-film devices, and they play a critical role in modern crystalline (c-Si) solar cells. Thin films are widely used in c-Si devices to create carrier-selective and/or passivating contacts. Such materials include both traditional Si-based materials (amorphous/nanocrystalline/polycrystalline silicon or its alloys) and other materials, such as various metal oxides, nitrides, and fluorides. In addition, the creation of solar cells of both generations involves the use of various antireflection coatings, as well as thin layers of transparent conducting oxides.

It is our pleasure to invite you to submit a manuscript to this Special Issue, which will be dedicated to issues posed by the fabrication and application of thin-film materials for Si-based photovoltaics. Original research articles and reviews are welcome. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to:

• Thin film fabrication technologies;
• Thin-film structures and devices;
• Structural, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of thin films;
• Selective and passivating and contacts;
• Transparent conducting oxide layers.

Dr. Alexandr Zamchiy
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• silicon photovoltaics
• thin films
• functional layers
• materials synthesis and deposition
• physical, structural, and optical characterization of materials