Abstract: A device includes a conductive surface (12) and electrical contacts (14) by which an electric current is able to be passed. The electrical contacts (14) include conductive seeds (16) deposited on the conductive surface (12), an electrically insulating layer (18), which covers discontinuously the conductive seeds (16) in order to form openings leaving access to the conductive seeds (16), and a plating layer (22) recovering the discontinuous insulating layer (18) and deposited on conductive seeds (16) which are accessible through the openings and form points from which the deposit of the plating layer (22) can start. The rest of the conductive surface (12), which doesn't include any electrical contacts (14), is continuously covered by the electrically insulating layer (18).

Abstract: A solar cell includes a support (6), a back electrode layer (5), at least a hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon photoelectric device (9), and a top electrode layer (11). The back electrode layer (5) has a rough surface. The solar cell includes, between the back electrode layer (5) and the hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon photoelectric device (9), an asymmetric intermediate layer (8), the intermediate layer (8) being adjacent to the hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon photoelectric device (9) and having a surface, on the side of the back electrode layer (5), having a roughness greater than the roughness of the surface of the intermediate layer (8) on the side of the hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon device (9). Such solar cells allow obtaining optimum Voc and FF parameters, while maintaining high current.

Abstract: A method for limiting epitaxial growth in a photoelectric device with heterojunctions including a crystalline silicon substrate and at least one layer of amorphous or microcrystalline silicon, wherein the method is characterised in that it includes the step of texturing the crystalline silicon surface.

Abstract: The textured transparent conductive layer according to the invention is deposited on a substrate intended for a photoelectric device and exhibiting a surface morphology formed from a sequence of humps and hollows. It is characterized in that its hollows have a rounded base with a radius of more than 25 nm; the said hollows are virtually smooth, which is to say that, where they exhibit microroughnesses, these microroughnesses have a height on average of less than 5 nm; and its flanks form an angle with the plane of the substrate whose median of the absolute value is between 30° and 75°.