A semiconductive junction device comprises a thin layer of a glassy amorphous material exhibiting one type of conductivity (either N or P) disposed upon a semiconductive substrate possessing the other kind of conductivity. The glassy layer is sufficiently thin that it exhibits a useful level of conductivity. Preferably, the glassy layer is ion impermeable so that the device remains stable under a wide range of operating conditions. These junctions behave as diodes and can be incorporated in a wide variety of complex semiconductive devices.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a division, of application Ser. No. 227,933 filed Feb. 22, 1972 now U.S. Pat. No. 3,801,879, which application is a continuation-in-part of United States application Ser. No. 122,420 filed by the same inventor on Mar. 9, 1971.
A multijunction photovoltaic device includes first, second, and third amorphous silicon p-i-n photovoltaic cells in a stacked arrangement. The intrinsic layers of the second and third cells are formed of a-SiGe alloys with differing ratios of Ge such that the bandgap of the intrinsic layers respectively decrease from the first uppermost cell to the third lowermost cell. An interface layer, composed of a doped silicon compound, is disposed between the two cells and has a lower bandgap than the respective n- and p-type adjacent layers of the first and second cells. The interface layer forms an ohmic contact with the one of the adjacent cell layers of the same conductivity type, and a tunnel junction with the other of the adjacent cell layers.
