Several strategies and approaches have been reported for improving the resilience and optoelectronic properties of perovskite films. However, fabricating a desirable and stable perovskite absorber layer is still a great challenge due to the optoelectronic and fabrication limitations of the materials. Here, we introduce diethylammonium bromide (DABr) as a post-treatment material for the pre-deposited methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI₃) film to fabricate a high-quality two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) stacked hetero-structure perovskite film. The post-treatment method of DABr not only induces the small crystals of MAPbI₃ perovskite secondary growth into a large crystal, but also forms a 2D capping layer on the surface of the 3D MAPbI3 film. Meanwhile, the grains and crystallization of 3D film with DABr post-treatment are significantly improved, and the surface defect density is remarkably reduced, which in turn effectively suppressed the charge recombination in the interface between the perovskite layer and the charge transport layer. The perovskite solar cell based on the DABr-treatment exhibited a significantly enhanced power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 19.10% with a notable improvement in the open circuit voltage (V_OC) of 1.06 V and good stability, advocating the potential of this perovskite post-treatment approach.

Compensated silicon has long been a topic of interest in semiconductor physics due to the complex interactions between donors and acceptor. In photovoltaics, p-type compensated Si was studied, e.g., in the framework of the development of upgraded metallurgical-grade (UMG) silicon, since the refining processes cannot avoid the presence of both B and P atoms in the feedstock.Today, the growing emphasis on circular manufacturing and end-of-life module recycling drives the attention toward n-type silicon, the current market standard. The possibility of reusing p-type feedstock from decommissioned modules compensated by donor addition could enable its integration into modern n-type architectures such as TOPCon, SHJ, and IBC. However, a key question remains open: does n-type compensated silicon (particularly when derived from recycled sources) exhibit the required optoelectronic quality for these advanced device structures?This work presents first answers to this question through a comparative study of two compensated silicon ingots: (i) an intentionally co-doped n-type ingot grown from conventional polysilicon; and (ii) a compensated ingot grown from recycled p-type material with phosphorus addition. The study aims to elucidate how dopant compensation affects key material parameters such as minority carrier lifetime and mobility, resistivity, and defect activity, thereby assessing its suitability for advanced n-type solar cell technologies. The results of this work confirm that recycled compensated silicon is a viable route toward high-efficiency n-type solar cells.

This paper is an attempt to examine the editorial coverage of the Pulwama attack, a suicide bomb blast occurred in the territory of Pulwama, 20 kilometers

Light-induced degradation (LID) of boron-doped (B-doped) Czochralski silicon (Cz-Si) due to the formation of boron-oxygen (B-O) defects is a very well-known phenomenon that limits the stability of solar cells. To overcome the detrimental effects of B-O defects, the silicon industry has adopted gallium-doped wafers. However, it has been reported that Ga-doped Cz-Si-based solar cells are affected by light and elevated temperature induced degradation (LeTID), and the origin of this phenomenon at wafer level remains unclear. In this work we investigate light-induced changes in Ga-doped p-type Cz-Si wafers of different resistivities and compare them to the well-known degradation response of B-doped substrates. Through controlled illumination–temperature experiments and photoconductance-based carrier lifetime measurements, we analyse the evolution of minority carrier lifetime and the metastable nature of the lifetime-limiting defects. It was found that upon light-soaking at room temperature for 24 hours, Ga-doped wafers exhibit an average increment in the carrier lifetime, but a drop is observed under dark annealing at 200 ºC for 10 min. This behavior, which has an opposite dynamic to the traditional B-O activation/deactivation process in B-doped wafers, might suggest the existence of a metastable defect in Ga-doped samples. By applying a higher temperature during the light-soaking step, the average carrier lifetime values of Ga-doped samples decrease around 30%, and no recovery is observed under dark annealing conditions at 70 or 200 ºC. Moreover, our results of cyclability suggest that the defects dynamic in Ga-doped Cz-Si is not reversible. The results provide new insights into the mechanisms governing stability in Ga-doped silicon at bare wafer level and their implications for reliable, high-efficiency solar cell manufacturing.