Abstract: The present invention is a method for producing an optically enhanced thin film photovoltaic device.The method includes the steps of producing an active layer of semiconductor material wherein the surface of at least one side of the active layer is textured such that the surface includes randomly spaced, densely packed microstructures of predetermined dimensions of the order of the wavelength of visible light in the semiconductor material and attaching a reflecting surface directly to one side of the semiconductor material and making an ohmic contact to the material.

Abstract: An ultra-high efficiency inverted solar cell structure is disclosed. At the rear of the cell is a high performance heterocontact made of SIPOS (a mixture of micro-crystalline silicon and silicon dioxide). At the edge of the cell, the opposite contact is of conventional heavily doped silicon. The edge contact is kept in the dark at least one diffusion length or one-third mm laterally displaced away from both the active illuminated region and from the active heterocontact.

Abstract: In a laser pulse generator, short pulses adjustable in the range between about 0.1 and 0.5 nanoseconds are produced by improved spectral filtering of the output of a gas breakdown switch. The spectral filter in one embodiment is a hot, linearly absorbing gas cell that passes both sidebands of the radiation producing the gas breakdown in the switch and that linearly absorbs the center frequency. A second embodiment uses a tandem dual-slit monochromator as the spectral filter in order to pass both sidebands. The hot gas cell is simpler, cheaper and characterized by a higher rejection ratio than any other alternative to date. It yields very clean pulses with a steeper leading edge than prior techniques. The leading edge is highly reproducible, as needed for nuclear fusion work. The advantage over prior pulsed CO.sub.2 lasers for nuclear fusion work is substantial, since those prior lasers have not achieved pulse durations less than one nanosecond.