Preface: Phys. Status Solidi C 10/2011

The Third International Workshop on thin film silicon solar cells (IWTFSSC-3) was held on 11-14 October 2010 at ANA Hotel Nagasaki Gloverhill in Nagasaki, Japan (the first workshop was in Nara, Japan in 2007 and the second one in Berlin, Germany in 2009). This workshop mainly consists of invited talks and panel discussion on the present status and future prospects of thin film silicon photovoltaics (PV) technologies. The 50 participants include internationally most renowned experts. 50 reports were presented including 20 invited talks. Among these reports, 13 papers were selected to be published in this special issue. Driven by an increasing demand for PV, a shortage of crystalline silicon and the availability of turn-key production lines, thin film silicon solar cells have been attracting increasing attention over the past few years. Many companies have invested in mass production lines for a-Si and a-Si/μc-Si solar modules. A large number of these companies are still in the ramp-up phase, or even before. Despite impressive growth of the thin film Si manufacturing capacity, many technological issues remain of importance. These include high deposition rate processes, large area uniformity, optical confinement, or laser scribing. To stay ahead of competing technologies, it will be important to address more fundamental and longer-term issues as well, such as photo degradation of a-Si, very high current cells, triple cells, new structures, or advanced transparent conductive oxides (TCOs). It is the aim of this workshop to address these and other topics, and to discuss them in an informal atmosphere with other experts. All participants vigorously exchanged their ideas leading to significant progress in important issues in thin film silicon solar cells. Thanks to the organizers and participants, there was an excellent blend of research reports from industry and academia and research reports worldwide.