Environmental Technologies and Eco-innovation in the Czech ...

cooperation with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology of
the Technical University in Brno, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of CTU in Prague
and the Institute of Scientific Instruments in Brno.
5.1.2 | Thin-film structures and semiconductor materials
The most widely spread technology in this field is structures based on amorphous
hydrogenated silica and microcrystalline silica. Long-term research and development
is being conducted at the Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences on the Czech
Republic in Prague. The main aim of the research is to study the optoelectronic
properties 1 of non-crystalline forms of silica and produce optic models of solar cell
structures. At the Institute, methods were implemented to analyse the magnitude
of defects in amorphous and crystalline silica. Furthermore, a workplace has been
established for producing thin films with the possibility of in-situ characterisation of
topography as well as the morphology of layered surfaces.
The Research Centre for New Technologies at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň
also deals with thin films. The research is aimed at depositing and characterising
the physical properties of transparent conductive oxides, amorphous hydrogenated
silica, microcrystalline silica and recrystallised polycrystalline silica. Significant
results have been obtained in the stabilisation of layers of amorphous hydrogenated
silica against degradation as a consequence of the long-term actuation of light. This
has been also verified in the structure of a photovoltaic cell.
Organic and polymeric 2 semi-conductor materials are the youngest technological
branch that has a huge development potential because of their significantly lower
costs. They are currently in the initial research phase. Although it is the youngest
branch of photovoltaics, the volume of research activities exceeds that of other
branches in the Czech Republic. Synthesising and studying properties of organic
and polymeric materials for photovoltaics are the subject of the research being
simultaneously conducted at several workplaces. The most significant in this field is the
Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
in Prague where complex research and development of new polymeric materials
and systems is being conducted for the application in photovoltaics including the
1 optoelectronic properties – the summary of optical and electronic properties of semiconductor materials reflecting their
electronic structure (the density of electron states, valence and conduction band, the magnitude and power distribution of
defects, spectral dependence of absorption coefficient, etc.)
2 polymeric semi-conductor materials – new types of organic semiconductors that replace costly cells that are mostly made of
silica
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