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AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsKeishi Saito, Toshimitsu Kariya, Koichi Matsuda, Naoto Okada, Yutaka Nishio, Tomonori Nishimoto, Takaharu Kondo
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The present invention aims to provide a photovoltaic element which can maintain high initial characteristics over long term usage even under severe environments, and can be mass-produced with high yield. A photovoltaic element in which a light reflecting layer, a light reflection multiplying layer, an n-type layer, an i-type layer, and a p-type layer composed of a non-single crystal semiconductor material comprising at least silicon, and a transparent electrode are successively formed on a conductive substrate, characterized in that said light reflecting layer comprises silver or copper atoms as the main constituent and further contains at least one of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. Also, in another embodiment, this photovoltaic element is characterized in that said light reflecting layer comprises silver as the main constituent, and further contains lead, lead and gold, or lead, gold, and a first transition group metal in an amount of 2 to 100 ppm.
A photovoltaic element comprising, in order, a light reflecting layer, a light reflection multiplying layer, a photoactive semiconductor layer comprising a laminate of a first conductivity type layer composed of a non-single crystal semiconductor material comprising at least silicon, an i-type layer, a second conductivity type layer opposite to the first conductivity type, and a transparent electrode, characterized in that said light reflecting layer comprises silver as the main constituent, and further contains at least one of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon.
A photovoltaic element comprising, in order, a light reflecting layer, a light reflection multiplying layer, a photoactive semiconductor layer comprising a laminate of a first conductivity type layer composed of a non-single crystal semiconductor material comprising at least silicon, an i-type layer, a second conductivity type layer opposite to the first conductivity type, and a transparent electrode, characterized in that said light reflecting layer comprises copper as the main constituent, and further contains at least one of oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon.
A photovoltaic element comprising, in order, a light reflecting layer, a light reflection multiplying layer, a photoactive semiconductor layer comprising a laminate of a first conductivity type layer composed of a non-single crystal semiconductor material comprising at least silicon, an i-type layer, a second conductivity type layer opposite to the first conductivity type, and a transparent electrode, characterized in that said light reflecting layer comprises silver as the main constituent, and further contains lead, lead and gold, or lead, gold, and a first transition group metal in an amount of 2 to 100 ppm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.