Abstract: Systems and Methods for back contact to film silicon on metal for photovoltaic cells are provided. In one embodiment, a method for creating a conductive pathway in a photovoltaic cell comprises: obtaining a layered photovoltaic device comprising: a metal substrate with a crystal orientation; a crystal semiconductor layer with the crystal orientation; and a heteroepitaxially grown buffer layer positioned between the substrate and the crystal semiconductor layer; and forming one or more conductive pathways between the crystal semiconductor layer and the metal substrate, the pathways being through at least a portion of the buffer layer.

Abstract: Crystal silicon processes and products (100) are disclosed. In any exemplary embodiment, a biaxially textured metal substrate (110) was fabricated by the Rolling-Assisted Biaxially Textured Substrate (RABiTS) process. Electron beam evaporation was used to grow buffer layers (120) heteroepitaxially on the metal substrate (110) as a buffer layer (120). After growth of the buffer layer (120), a silicon layer was grown using hot wire chemical vapor deposition (HWCVD). The silicon film had the same grain size as the underlying metal substrate (110). In addition, the orientation of these grains matched the orientations of the underlying metal substrate (110).