Emerging Functional Thin Film Materials for Photovoltaic Applications

Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to contribute to this Special Issue of Coatings entitled “Emerging Functional Thin-Film Materials for Photovoltaic Applications”.

In recent years, a plethora of materials in the thin-film format has been explored for photovoltaic applications. Only a very few rose to stardom with a meteoric rise, greatly capturing the attention of the PV research community, while others remained as prospective materials with unfulfilled potential. Moreover, with the aid of first-principle study and machine learning using computational frameworks, the theoretical quest for new materials has significantly increased. Although CdTe- and CIGS-based technologies have been successfully commercialized, fundamental investigations on their material properties, interface engineering and device structure are still being actively pursued. The aim is to address imminent issues, such as reducing the utilization of scarce elements (Te, In) through the concept of isovalent alloying (CdSeTe) and an ultrathin absorber layer, while, at the same time, preserving an optimal conversion efficiency. On the alternative front, for chalcogen-containing compounds, such as CZTS(Se), SbS(Se), CuSbS(Se), FeS, GeSe, SnS, etc., despite the considerable stagnation in their conversion efficiency progression, continuous effort from PV researchers is still evident. The current superstar of the PV arena, perovskite solar cells (PSCs), is also undergoing a revolution of its own. Dogged by performance stability issues due to their intrinsic material properties, PSC research has taken a novel turn towards the development of inorganic perovskite materials with the primary aim of resolving the aforementioned bottleneck.

This Special Issue aims to cover recent trends and the latest research advances in the field of thin-film deposition, characterization and application to thin-film photovoltaic technologies. Researchers worldwide are invited to submit their papers covering the latest advances in emerging photoabsorber materials, heterojunction engineering and novel concepts related to photovoltaic devices based on thin inorganic, organic and hybrid films. This Special Issue also welcomes publications involving numerical modeling using one-dimensional computer software.

In particular, topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Emerging functional thin films for solar cells;
• Ultrathin photoabsorber materials;
• Transparent and conductive thin films;
• n-buffer/p-absorber heterointerface engineering;
• Metal back contact/p-absorber metal–semiconductor interface;
• Organic, inorganic and hybrid perovskite solar cells;
• Numerical simulation of thin film photovoltaic devices.

Dr. Puvaneswaran Chelvanathan
Dr. Kazi Sajedur Rahman
Guest Editors

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.

• thin film
• solar cells
• inorganic
• perovskite
• organic
• TCO
• buffer layer
• HRT layer
• back contact