Surface science, solar materials interfaces

Extensive interface research is crucially essential for developing long-life, cost-effective, multilayer, polycrystalline, thin-film stacks for SECS. Microchemical analysis and other interface measuring techniques must be employed to solve the interfacial stability problems in the stacks. Important topical areas in solar materials interface science include thin films grain, phase, and interfacial boundaries corrosion and oxidation adhesion chemisorption, catalysis, and surface processes abrasion and erosion photon-assisted surface reactions and photoelectrochemistry and interface characterization methods. 

The three phases of interest are the solid (S), liquid (L), and gas (G) phases, none of which is infinite. The boundary region between the S, L, and G phases has fundamentally different properties from the bulk. The S/S, S/G, and S/L surfaces, in that order, are of greatest interest to the solar materials scientist (4). Some of the broad topical areas of study at the interfaces of SECS are listed in Table 2. An understanding of these topics is enhanced by applying the methodologies of interface science. 

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