Solar Cells and Light Management Materials Strategies and Sustainability Francesco Enrichi Editor Full Download Chapter

Solar Cells and Light Management:
Materials, Strategies and Sustainability

Francesco Enrichi (Editor)
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://ebookmass.com/product/solar-cells-and-light-management-materials-strategie
s-and-sustainability-francesco-enrichi-editor/
SOLAR CELLS AND
LIGHT MANAGEMENT
Materials, Strategies
and Sustainability
Edited by
FRANCESCO ENRICHI
Research Fellow
Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems
Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Venice, Italy
GIANCARLO C. RIGHINI
Emeritus Research Director
Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi
Rome, Italy
Elsevier
Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
Copyright Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Details on
how to seek permission, further information about the Publisher’s permissions policies
and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center and the
Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright
by the Publisher (other than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and
experience broaden our understanding, changes in research methods, professional
practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in
evaluating and using any information, methods, compounds, or experiments described
herein. In using such information or methods they should be mindful of their own safety
and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional
responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or
editors, assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a
matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any
methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN: 978-0-08-102762-2
For information on all Elsevier publications visit our

website at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals
Publisher: Matthew Deans

Acquisition Editor: Gwen Jones
Editorial Project Manager: Isabella C. Silva
Production Project Manager: R.Vijay Bharath
Cover Designer: Christian J. Bilbow
Typeset by TNQ Technologies

To my wife Valentina and my children Marco, Davide, and Elena,
for their endless love, trust, and support
Francesco Enrichi
To my Dearest Ones, Marta and Nicoletta

Giancarlo C. Righini
Contributors

Hugo Aguas
i3N/CENIMAT, Department of Materials Science, Faculty of Science and Technology,
Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and CEMOP/UNINOVA, Campus de Caparica,
Caparica, Portugal

Mario Enrique Alvarez-Ramos
Posgrado en Nanotecnología, Departamento de Física, Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo,
Sonora, México
Arturo Ay on
MEMS Research Lab, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at San
Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States
Jérémy Barbé
SPECIFIC, College of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom
Antonino Bartolotta
CNR-IPCF, Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, Messina, Italy
Brigitte Boulard
IMMM UMR CNRS 6283, Le Mans Université, Le Mans, France
Giuseppe Calogero
CNR-IPCF, Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici, Messina, Italy
Andrea Chiappini
IFN-CNR CSMFO Lab. and FBK Photonics Unit, Povo-Trento, Italy
Isabella Concina
Division of Materials Science, Department of Engineering Sciences and Mathematics,
Luleå, Sweden
Isodiana Crupi
Engineering Department, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
Paola Delli Veneri
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic
Development (ENEA), Portici Research Centre, Portici, NA, Italy
Aldo Di Carlo
Centre for Hybrid and Organic Solar Energy, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome,
Italy; Laboratory for Advanced Solar Energy, National University of Science and
Technology ‘‘MISiS’’, Moscow, Russia
Francesco Enrichi
Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice,
Venice, Italy
xiii j
xiv Contributors
Maurizio Ferrari
IFN-CNR CSMFO Lab. and FBK Photonics Unit, Povo-Trento, Italy; Museo Storico
della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi, Rome, Italy
Alvaro Flores-Pacheco
Posgrado en Nanotecnología, Departamento de Física, Universidad de Sonora, Hermosillo,
Sonora, México; MEMS Research Lab, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University
of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, United States
Elvira Fortunato
Caparica, Portugal
Mojtaba Gilzad Kohan
Luleå, Sweden
Francesco Gonella
Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice,
Mestre-Venezia, Italy
Sirazul Haque
Caparica, Portugal
Harrison Ka Hin Lee
Yumiko Katayama
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Anna Lukowiak
Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research, PAS, Wroclaw, Poland
Xiaoling Ma
Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information, Ministry of Education, Beijing
Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
Rodrigo Martins
Caparica, Portugal
Tiago Mateus
Caparica, Portugal
Manuel J. Mendes
Caparica, Portugal
Contributors xv
Lucia V. Mercaldo
Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic
Development (ENEA), Portici Research Centre, Portici, NA, Italy
Itumeleng Mokgosi
School of Physics, Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials and Materials for Energy
Research Group, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Seweryn Morawiec
Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus
University, Torun, Poland
Dustin R. Mulvaney
Department of Environmental Studies, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, United
States
Alessandro Lorenzo Palma
Italy; Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic
Development (ENEA), Energy Efficiency Unit Department, Rome, Italy
Alexander Quandt
School of Physics, Centre of Excellence in Strong Materials and Materials for Energy
Research Group, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi, Rome, Italy
Olalla Sanchez-Sobrado
Caparica, Portugal
Danila Saranin
Laboratory for Advanced Solar Energy, National University of Science and Technology
‘‘MISiS’’, Moscow, Russia
Sofia Spagnolo
Department of Environmental Sciences, Informatics and Statistics, Ca’ Foscari University of
Venice, Mestre-Venezia, Italy
Setsuhisa Tanabe
Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku,
Kyoto, Japan
Wing Chung Tsoi
Alberto Vomiero
Luleå, Sweden; Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari
University of Venice, Italy
xvi Contributors
Robert Warmbier
Department of Physics, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa
Narges Yaghoobi Nia
Italy
Fujun Zhang
Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Optical Information, Ministry of Education, Beijing
Jiaotong University, Beijing, China
Lidia Zur
IFN-CNR CSMFO Lab. and FBK Photonics Unit, Povo-Trento, Italy
Preface
The growth of global population and the ever-increasing energy consump-

tion put serious questions on the sustainability of our society. In this context,
the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energies is recognized as a funda-
mental strategy to pursue, driven by strong investments and strict regula-
tions. Among renewables, a key role is played by photovoltaics (PV),
since sunlight is widespread all over the world and can be exploited at any
level, from cheap portable devices up to large industrial installations.
In the last few decades, the evolution of solar cells developed incredibly
fast, thanks to both a multiplication of different technologies driven by the
synthesis and optimization of novel materials and a continuous increase of
efficiency, made possible by proper structure design and light management
strategies. The aim of this book is to provide the state of the art of the most
recent progresses in the field of PV solar cells, with the attempt of shining
light on emerging technologies, latest results, and potential perspectives. It
is intended both for the expert in the field, and for the newcomer, being
a valuable reference tool with updated literature and envisioned develop-
ments in the field. It also aims at being an instructive and stimulating text
for undergraduate and postgraduate students, allowing a growth of their
knowledge about novel materials for solar cells and light management.
This book is organized in four sections. After a general introduction, the
first section provides a detailed overview on different concepts and materials
for solar PV devices, starting from the standard silicon cells to the organic-
based, dye-sensitized perovskite and all-oxide solar cells. This panorama al-
lows the reader to get up to date with the standard traditional approach as
well as the new and more promising concepts for the evolution of the field.
The second and third sections are focused on light manipulation and solar
spectrum modification, as tools to further increase the photon-to-current ef-
ficiency. This field, too, is in rapid evolution, and the latest results on optical
strategies and materials for light trapping, plasmonic scattering, spectral up-
and downconversion (mainly based on rare earth doped oxides and com-
plexes) are reported.
Finally, in the last section, a critical approach on the sustainability of PV
technologies is given. An eMergy (spelled with “m”) analysis, which is an
extension of the life cycle analysis (LCA), is applied to the study of solar
PV systems. Furthermore, the limits of LCA metrics into questions of
xvii j
xviii Preface
environmental justice, human rights, and other nonquantifiable impacts of

production systems are discussed. Nowadays, the attention to issues such
as sustainability and social responsibilities cannot be neglected and, instead,
should be carefully considered in the development of new technologies
and their use.
In details, this book starts with an introduction, Chapter 1, which gives
an overview of the concepts and a summary of the main results of the PV
sector. After a general description of the global scenario and the historical
evolution of PV, the different families of solar cells are presented, with their
latest efficiency achievements and perspectives of further research develop-
ment. Furthermore, the main optical strategies for increasing the efficiency
of these devices are illustrated with updated results and future potential.
Chapter 2 is focused on silicon solar cells from a device-engineering
perspective, encompassing both the crystalline and the thin film (based on
amorphous and microcrystalline silicon) technologies. Properties and fabri-
cation methods of the photoactive materials are considered, as well as
different device architectures and promising new trends for this technology.
Organic solar cells (OSCs) are the subject of Chapter 3, with particular
attention to the recent advances in ternary structures. The development
of ternary OSCs based on different system is summarized; the main working
mechanisms and the potential research directions are outlined, together with
the challenges and perspectives for future development.
An original journey into the field of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs),
starting from the colors of chemical dyes to the natural ones, is presented
in Chapter 4. The state of the art, design, and fabrication of solar devices
based on the appealing family of natural sensitizers are shown, reviewing
their lights and shadows. The working principles and the main components
of DSSC are described, with a specific focus on the photoanode; a systematic
review of the many dyes employed as sensitizers for solar energy application
is also provided.
In Chapter 5, the emerging field of perovskite solar cells is examined.
The chapter summarizes the unique properties of halide perovskite, such
as crystal structure, energy band properties, charge transport, recombination,
and ferroelectric properties. A detailed discussion is devoted to perovskite
crystallization (from liquid phase) and the use of different deposition
methods. Furthermore, examples of possible device architectures and mod-
ule fabrication are discussed.
Solar cells based on oxide materials are described in Chapter 6. These ox-
ides, composed of Earth-abundant harmless materials, are more stable than
Preface xix
most of the other materials alternative to silicon and are therefore ideal can-
didates for realizing cheap, stable, and safe solar cells. Their major efficiency-
limitation factor is the low hole mobility in the p-type oxide. This chapter
illustrates the latest results in the field, including the integration of nanowire
geometries as a viable solution toward fast charge transport and collection.
Chapter 7 illustrates simulation approaches for the modeling of PV ma-
terials and devices. The calculation of material parameters by ab initio
methods based on density functional theory opens the very exciting possibil-
ity to develop new types of solar cells entirely in silico. Furthermore, the
chapter gives some insights in the augmentation of commercial types of solar
cells by using frequency conversion layers.
Metallic nanoparticles sustaining localized surface plasmon resonances are
the subject of Chapter 8. The correlation between structural and optical
properties of self-assembled silver nanostructures, the optimization of the
fabrication process, and their potential for enhancing light trapping in thin
film PV are discussed. Furthermore, a novel optoelectronic spectroscopic
method for the quantification of absorption enhancement and of parasitic
losses in thin photovoltaic absorbers due to plasmonic light trapping is
described.
Chapter 9 is focused on the development of photonic structures for
improving light trapping in thin film solar cells, enabling high-efficiency,
low-cost and mechanically flexible devices, in particular for silicon and
perovskite PV technologies. In this chapter, colloidal lithography methods
are shown to be suitable for surface nanopatterning, allowing compatibility
with industrial scalability and low-cost requirements.
The field of indoor light harvesting is presented in Chapter 10, in rela-
tion to the significant increase of electronic devices for Internet-of-Things
(IoT) applications. IoT can be crucial in developing smart homes, offices,
and buildings. Compared to silicon, the cheaper organic and perovskite
PV cells have much better performance under indoor lighting conditions.
The aim of this chapter is to introduce this exciting and emerging applica-
tion of organic and perovskite PV devices.
Chapter 11 discusses transparent glass ceramics activated by rare earth
ions as spectral converters to improve the efficiency of solar cells. After a
brief presentation of transparent glass ceramics, the basics of spectral conver-
sion are summarized, and some specific examples, mainly based on glass ce-
ramics fabricated by sol-gel route, are reported.
In analogy with the previous chapter, Chapter 12 is focused on quantum
cutting by lanthanides and Yb3þ co-doped phosphors. After absorption in
xx Preface
the UV or visible spectral region, two or more photons at about 1 mm wave-

length can be emitted, which are better matched to commercial polycrystal-
line or single crystal silicon absorption. Recent results and updated literature
on this field are presented.
The use of quantum dots as broadband spectral down-shifters is
illustrated in Chapter 13. The experimental observations indicate that higher
power conversion efficiency values can be achieved by exploiting this
down-shifting effect, due to the absorption of the UV photons by the
QDs involved and the subsequent emission at longer wavelengths.
In Chapter 14, an eMergy (spelled with “m”) analysis approach is pre-
sented, applied to the study of solar PV systems. Emergy analysis is a
thermodynamic-based method used for the assessment of systemic sustain-
ability, based on the upstream energy investment necessary for creating a
product or a service. This analysis, which is an extension of Life Cycle
Assessment (LCA) methodology, allows to determine effective integrated
indicators for the evaluation of the global efficiency and the sustainability
of the systems at issue.
Finally, Chapter 15 draws on several LCA and environmental justice case
studies related to PV commodity chains. It aims at improving our under-
standing of the socio-ecological impacts of global production systems.
LCA could be an important tool to explore the roots of environmental
inequality, and it brings a way to look at risks in a more comprehensive
way, but also poses some challenges. This chapter attempts to provide
both the rationale, methodology, and instances of integrating LCA and
commodity chain analysis in the assessment of systems of production.
This book would not have been possible without the collaboration and
the scientific-technical expertise of the authors of the different chapters; we
are deeply indebted to them for their excellent and timely work. We are also
grateful to our editorial project manager, Isabella Conti Silva, and all the
Elsevier editorial staff for the precious and continuous support.
Francesco Enrichi
CHAPTER ONE
Solar cells’ evolution and

perspectives: a short review
Giancarlo C. Righini1, Francesco Enrichi2
1
Museo Storico della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi, Rome, Italy
2
Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy
1.1 An introduction: economics, energy, and

sustainability
The growth in world population and industrialization that started to
accelerate in the second half of the 20th century had an obvious effect on
the growth of the global economic activities, hence of the world gross prod-
uct (WGP). In turn, energy consumption has also continuously increased
and so did the impact of all these factors on the environment. Doubts
were then rising about the possible consequences of continuing to equate
growth with progress. The concept of sustainability, “which encompasses
the idea of pursuing societal structures and activities that are resilient and
enduring, for both human beings and the geobiosphere that supports their
life” [1], is relatively recent. A first warning of unlimited material growth
and unrestrained consumption in a world which has limited resources
came from the work of “Club of Rome,” founded in 1968 [2], and from
the publication, in 1972, of the report “The Limits to Growth” [3], that first
introduced the idea that environmental and economic issues cannot be
treated separately. The idea of assessing the quality of energy necessary to
make a product or service and of doing so by taking into account all the rele-
vant parameters (primary energy, economic investment, labor, environ-
mental loading, etc.) led to the introduction of the emergy methodology,
largely based on the seminal work by H. T. Odum [4]. An emergy analysis
of a sustainable photovoltaic solar exploitation is presented in the Chapter 14
of this book [1].
Fig. 1.1 presents the growth rates of population, WGP, global energy
consumption, and electricity consumption in the present decade
Solar Cells and Light Management

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd.
j
ISBN: 978-0-08-102762-2
https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-102762-2.00001-X All rights reserved. 1
2 Giancarlo C. Righini and Francesco Enrichi
Figure 1.1 Growth rates in the present decade of the population (blue), world gross
product (orange), global energy consumption (yellow), and global electricity consump-
tion (gray).
(2010e19). Despite the fact that the population growth slowed in the last
years (1.07% growth rate estimated in 2019, with respect to 1.23 in
2010), it reached a count of over 7.7 billions of persons [5]; the GDP annual
growth rate fluctuated but was always higher than 3%, reaching 3.6% in
2017 and 2018 (values calculated by adjusting for purchasing power parities,
i.e., for differences in the cost of living across countries) [6].
The energy consumption increased at a lower rate than GDP, thanks to a
better efficiency of the technologies and industrial processes; in 2017 and
2018; however, there was a faster rise, with a global energy demand
increased by 2.1% in 2017, compared with 0.9% the previous year and
0.9% on average over the previous 5 years. More than 40% of the growth
in 2017 was driven by China and India. Global energy demand in 2017
reached an estimated 14,050 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe),
compared with 10,035 Mtoe in 2000, according to the “Global Energy
and CO2 Status Report 2017,” released by the International Energy Agency
(IEA) in March 2018 [7]. The global trend of consumption of electricity, in
particular, after a continuous strong increase from 2000 to 2010, slowed
down, with a minimum growth rate in 2015, corresponding to minimum
growth rate of GDP [8]; then, started again to rise, with an increase of
2.6% in 2017. Global power generation is forecast to increase by some
60% between 2017 and 2040 to cover a quarter of primary energy demand,
the IEA said in its World Energy Outlook 2018 [9].
Solar cells’ evolution and perspectives: a short review 3
Correspondingly, the measurements of the natural concentration of car-

bon dioxide in our atmosphere have shown that the annual increase rate
over the past 50 years has been about 100 times faster than previous natural
increases, which were due to thermal fluctuations in geological eras. Fig. 1.2
shows the historical fluctuations of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concen-
tration, as reconstructed from ice cores [10]. Global energyerelated CO2
emissions grew by 1.4% in 2017, reaching a historic high of 32.5 gigatonnes
(Gt), a resumption of growth after 3 years of global emissions remaining flat
[7]; the average concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere also hit a new re-
cord high in 2017: 405.0 parts per million (ppm). Fig. 1.3 reports the atmo-
spheric CO2 levels measured at the altitude of 3400 m, at Mauna Loa
Observatory, Hawaii, from 2005 to present; the latest data, expressed as
dry mole fraction of the number of molecules of carbon dioxide divided
by the number of molecules of dry air multiplied by one million ppm, are
obtained from direct measurements of the infrared absorption, showed in
January 2019 a level of 411 ppm.
Despite some debates, there is scientific consensus on two facts, namely
that the greenhouse gases are causing a climate change (even if still there is
Figure 1.2 Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide during the last three glacial
cycles, as reconstructed from ice cores, and current level. Credit: NOAA. Reproduced
from NASA, Global Climate Change. Facts. https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/.
Figure 1.3 Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide from 2005 to present, as

obtained by monthly averaged measurements of infrared absorption at the Mauna
Loa Observatory, Hawaii. The fluctuations due to the average seasonal cycle were
removed from the plot. Credit: NOAA. Reproduced from NASA, Global Climate Change.
Carbondioxide. https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/.
no universal agreement about the quantitative magnitude of anthropogenic

global warming and on its consequences) and that the CO2 emissions from
the combustion of fossil fuels give the largest contribution to the greenhouse
gases. Accordingly, policies’ choices made by most governments are aimed at
reducing air pollution, ensuring universal energy access, and achieving long-
term climate goals, with the central aim to keep a global temperature rise this
century well below 2 C above preindustrial levels and to make all efforts to
limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 C. This was the target of
the Paris Agreement, entered into force in November 2016 and currently
ratified by 185 Parties of 197 Parties to the UNFCCC (United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change) [11].
The goal of reducing CO2 emissions while still providing the energy ser-
vices necessary to accommodate the global economic growth may be
reached only by reducing substantially the impact of the energy sources,
which provide the highest CO2 emissions, namely coal and, more generally,
fossil fuels. Electricity is increasing its share among worldwide end uses of
energy; industrial electric motor systems, electric mobility, electric heating,
and electricity access could lead to a 90% rise in power demand from today
to 2040, according to the IEA forecast [9]. It is here that renewable sources
of energy can play a substantial role. Fig. 1.4 shows that in 2017, the fraction
of electricity generated by renewables reached a record high of 25% (and
constituted nearly half of the global additional generation of 380 TWh
required to meet the increasing demand); moreover, IEA forecasts that
Figure 1.4 Electricity generation in 2017, for a total of 25,570 TWh, by different energy
sources. PV, photovoltaics. Credit: IEA. Reproduced with modifications from Global Energy
& CO2 Status Report 2017. https://www.iea.org/geco/.
the share of generation from renewables could rise from 25% today up to
around 40% in 2040 [7].
Today, wind, hydropower, and solar photovoltaics (PV) represent a major
source of low-emissions electricity; IEA expects that the increasing compet-
itiveness of solar PV could lead its installed capacity to overcome that of wind
before 2025, of hydropower around 2030, and of coal before 2040. Other
problems, however, have to be considered; for instance, the wider distribu-
tion of PV-generated electricity may create additional requirements for the
reliable operation of power systems. Moreover, if electrification certainly re-
duces local pollution, additional measures may be necessary to control its
generation as well as the operation and the decommissioning of the power
supply systems from the environmental point of view; otherwise, the risk is
that pollution and CO2 emissions simply move upstream from the end-use
sectors to power generation, systems’ decommissioning, and recycling.
In the present chapter, a brief overview of the status of the research on
the fundamental bricks of the solar PV, namely the PV cells, is outlined,
without entering into considerations on solar panels and concentrated pho-
tovoltaics (CPV).
1.2 Solar photovoltaics: historical notes

Solar radiation at the earth’s upper atmosphere totals some 174 PW;
the average annual solar radiation is roughly 1.36 kW/m2 and, since about
30% is reflected back to space, the maximum normal surface irradiance at sea
level in a clear day is approximately 1 kW/m2. To be more precise, accord-
ing to the ASTM G-173 standard [12], which measures solar intensity over
the band 280e4000 nm, the total integrated irradiances for the direct and
hemispherical tilted (that is, direct beam plus diffuse sky) spectra are
900.1 W/m2 and 1000.4 W/m2, respectively. The latter value is corre-
sponding to the so-called AM1.5 atmospheric condition, namely assuming
an absolute air mass 1.5 (solar zenith angle 48.19 ), which is useful to repre-
sent the overall yearly average for mid-latitudes.
Such a huge amount of power is freely available, and sun’s energy has in
fact been used for millennia in various ways, either directly (e.g., by concen-
trating sun’s rays to make fire and to light sacred fires and torches for reli-
gious purposes) or indirectly (e.g., by living in south-facing caves ordat
Roman timesdby orienting southwest the largest windows of their bath
houses). The sun as an energy source started to be studied in the 18th
century, and scientists like Horace de Saussure, John Herschel, and Samuel
Pierpont Langley demonstrated that the temperature inside a properly
designed glass-covered box could exceed the boiling point of water. Those
hot boxes can be considered the prototypes for the solar collectors of recent
times.
The breakthrough, however, occurred with the discovery of the PV
effect by Edmond Becquerel, in 1839 [13], who experimented with metal
electrodes immersed in an electrolyte liquid, and with the first “real”
solid-state PV cell built in 1883 by Charles Fritts, using junctions formed
by coating a plate of copper with selenium and, over it, an ultrathin, nearly
transparent, layer of gold [14]. At the beginning of the 20th century, the
theoretical aspects of the fundamental photoelectric effect were fully
clarified by the 1905 paper of Albert Einstein “On a Heuristic Viewpoint
Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light” (he was awarded
the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics for that work) [15] and received experi-
mental proof with the work of Robert Millikan in 1916 [16].
Finally, the 1950s opened the development of PV solar power. The first
modern PV cell, based on silicon, was demonstrated by Daryl Chapin, Cal-
vin Fuller, and Gerald Pearson at Bell Laboratories in early 1954 and
exhibited a conversion efficiency of 4% (later going up to 11%). Given
the high cost and the low efficiency, in the first years the development of
PV cells was focused on the satellites’ applications; Vanguard 1, launched
in 1958 in the frame of a program managed by the United States Naval
Research Laboratory, was the first satellite to use radios powered by solar
energy (less than 1 W). Few years later, the first commercial communica-
tions satellite Telstar 1, designed and built by a team at Bell Telephone
Laboratories and launched by NASA in 1962, was powered by 3600 solar
cells, for a total 14 W. Starting in the 1970s, with the work of Elliot Berman
at Exxon, the improvements in materials and processes made the price of
silicon solar cell continuously decreasing, down to a fraction of US$ per
generated electrical watt after 2010. It made the use of cells in large solar
panels affordable and practical for both residential and nonresidential appli-
cations. The decline of price of silicon PV cells from 1977 to 2015 is shown
in Fig. 1.5 [17].
In the last decade, PV research and development has continued, focusing
onto new materials and advanced cell designs. In particular, researchers have
been looking for materials that can perform at similar or better levels than
silicon (in its various types, namely, monocrystalline, polycrystalline, and
amorphous silicon) but can be easily available and cheaper to produce. These
new materials include organics, IIIeV semiconductors, thin-film semicon-
ductors (e.g., CdTe and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS)),
Figure 1.5 Price history chart of crystalline silicon solar cells in US$ per watt from 1977
to 2015. PV, photovoltaics. Reproduced from Wikipedia Commons, Price History of Silicon
PV Cells Since 1977, 2015. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Price_history_of_
silicon_PV_cells_since_1977.svg.
perovskites, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes; their basic principles are

quickly summarized in the following section.
1.3 Main types of solar cells

The evolution of solar cells’ technologies, briefly introduced in the
previous section, is usually divided into three generations. The first genera-
tion is mainly based on monocrystalline or polycrystalline silicon wafers.
This generation is well established now and is commercially mature,
covering about 80% of the solar market. The efficiency of these cells is about
22%e25% in the laboratory (Fig. 1.6), mainly limited by the spectral
response of silicon single-junction semiconductor. The second generation
is based on thin-film semiconductors, mainly amorphous silicon, cadmium
telluride (CdTe), and CIGS. The significant material amount reduction
and the different production technologies (like vacuum deposition pro-
cesses) make these cells much cheaper than silicon wafer technologies,
with new features like flexibility, which allow for peculiar applications,
although their efficiency is slightly lower than the one of traditional cells.
Finally, the third generation of solar cells is based on the possibility to exploit
novel materials and architectures, aiming at very cheap productions and/or
very high efficiencies. Among them, multijunction solar cells (MJSCs), dye-
sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), quantum dotesensitized solar cells, organic
Figure 1.6 Chart of the best efficiencies achieved with research photovoltaic (PV) cells,
plotted from 1976 to 2018. Credit: National Research Energy Laboratory. https://www.
nrel.gov/pv/cell-efficiency.html.
solar cells (OSCs), and perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are some examples. Each
of them has specific advantages and limits, regarding not only cost, stability,
and efficiency but also peculiar properties like flexibility, transparency, etc.
The highest efficiency reported to date in the laboratory is as high as 47% in
MJSC.
An almost exhaustive list of the many types of solar cells developed in the
laboratories, both in academies and industries, is presented in Fig. 1.6, which
shows the time evolution of the best efficiencies achieved worldwide. This
plot is the 2018 version (issued in December 2018) of the chart regularly
maintained by NREL, USA, with the highest conversion efficiencies for
research cells from 1976 to the present [18]. Devices included in this chart
have efficiencies that are confirmed by independent, recognized test labs
and are reported on a standardized basis; the most recent world record for
each technology is highlighted along the right edge in a flag that contains
the efficiency and the symbol of the technology. The company or group
that fabricated the device for each most recent record is bolded on the
plot. The plot in Fig. 1.6 lists five families of PV cells (i.e., multijunction
cells, single-junction gallium arsenide cells, crystalline silicon cells, thin-
film technologies, emerging PV), subdivided in 28 subcategories. A quick
overview of these structures is given in the following subsections.
1.3.1 Multijunction solar cells

MJSCs are currently the most efficient way to convert sunlight into elec-
tricity (Fig. 1.7). The basic idea is to combine different semiconductor
Figure 1.7 (A) The structure of a multijunction solar cell. (B) Graph of spectral irradiance
versus wavelength over the AM1.5 solar spectrum, together with the maximum elec-
tricity conversion efficiency for every junction as a function of the wavelength. By
NcouniotdFraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, CC BY-SA 3.0.
materials, with different band gaps. Since photons with energy below the
band gap are transmitted without losses, the architecture of such a device
has the highest band gap junction first and the lowest band gap material
last. As the photons have to pass through the cell to reach the proper layer
to be absorbed, transparent conductors need to be used to collect the elec-
trons being generated at each layer.
In the realization of a monolithical cell, the layers are mechanically and
electrically connected. Therefore, the choice of the materials for each layer
must fit specific requirements, not only based on a suitable repartition of the
solar light spectral interval but also related to their mechanical and electrical
properties. To obtain the best device performance, lattice matching and cur-
rent matching are desired. Typically, these cells are grown layer-by-layer
and for optimal growth and resulting crystal quality, the crystal lattice
constant should be closely matched, resulting in lattice-matched devices.
A great degree of mismatch or other growth imperfections can lead to crystal
defects causing degradation in electronic properties.
Since each subcell is connected electrically in series, the same current
flows through each junction. Therefore, suitable band gaps must be chosen
such that the design spectrum will balance the current generation in each of
the subcells, achieving current matching. In Fig. 1.7B, the AM1.5 solar spec-
tral irradiance is plotted as a function of wavelength, together with the
maximum conversion efficiency for every junction, which is directly related
to the number of photons available for conversion into photocurrent.
Finally, strong absorption coefficients, high minority carrier lifetimes,
and high mobilities are desired, justifying the choice of materials typically
used for MJSCs: InGaP for the top subcell (Eg ¼ 1.8e1.9 eV), InGaAs
for the middle subcell (Eg ¼ 1.4 eV), and germanium for the bottom subcell
(Eg ¼ 0.67 eV).
In 2014, an MJSC established the world record efficiency at 46% for the
direct conversion of sunlight into electricity and was developed by Soitec
and CEA-Leti, France, together with the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar En-
ergy Systems ISE, Germany: it was a four-junction cell. Each of its subcells
converts exactly one quarter of the incoming photons in the wavelength
range between 300 and 1750 nm into electricity. The record was obtained
in concentrated PV conditions, by using a Fresnel lens, at a concentration of
508 suns. The perfect current matching condition obtained, thanks to the
exact distribution of the photons among the four subcells, was achieved
by a precise tuning of the composition and thicknesses of each layer inside
the cell structure [19].
1.3.2 Gallium arsenide single-junction solar cells

Gallium arsenide (GaAs) solar cells are considered as a separate family of PV
devices, although they are made as thin-film layers deposited on a supporting
substrate. GaAs is one of the most commonly used IIIeV semiconductor
materials. The high electron mobility, direct band gap, high quality of the
epitaxial growth process, and excellent surface passivation by AlGaAs
allowed GaAs to reach the world record efficiency for single-junction
thin-film devices in December 2018, up to 29.1% (Fig. 1.6), significantly
higher than silicon (record held by Alta Devices). The possibility to realize
efficient thin-film solar cells allows the overall weight of the solar panel to
be kept low, with the additional property of being flexible.
Noteworthy, GaAs is naturally resistant to damage from moisture, radi-
ation, and ultraviolet light. These properties, together with lightweight,
make GaAs an excellent choice for aerospace applications where increased
UV and exposure to radiation are an issue.
Furthermore, most solar cells are inefficient in weak illumination condi-
tions (low light intensity), but not high-quality GaAs. This feature, together
with the property of a wider band gap with respect to silicon, makes GaAs
very suitable also for indoor applications under LEDs and fluorescent light
excitation. In Chapter 10, we will see an overview of solar cells for indoor
applications [20], with a focus on some novel alternative approaches, based
on organics and perovskites.
1.3.3 Silicon solar cells

The use of silicon in PV technologies has been already introduced in previ-
ous paragraphs as the first generation of solar cells, and it will be discussed in
depth in Chapter 2 of this book [21]. Silicon PV is considered as a bench-
mark: crystalline silicon is the most common material for commercial solar
cells, combining affordable costs (Fig. 1.5), good efficiency up to 26%
e27% (Fig. 1.6), long-term stability and robustness, together with a solid in-
dustrial technology know-how. Silicon has an energy band gap of 1.12 eV, a
value that is well matched to the solar spectrum. As we will see in the next
section, this value is close to the optimum value for solar-to-electric energy
conversion using a single light absorber. Since the band gap is indirect,
namely the valence band maximum is not at the same position in mo-
mentum space as the conduction band minimum, silicon has a relatively
low absorption coefficient. However, with proper light management design,
such as the use of surface texturing, antireflection coatings, and rear mirrors,
efficient light absorption is achieved even with relatively thin wafers (down
to w100 mm). On the good side, because of the indirect band gap, radiative
recombination is inefficient, which means that the photogenerated electrons
and holes in principle can have very long lifetimes. Crystalline silicon solar
cells make use of mono- and multicrystalline silicon wafers wire-cut from
ingots and cast silicon blocks.
An alternative to standard silicon wafer technology is constituted by
amorphous or nanocrystalline silicon thin films, which will be described
in the next subsection.
1.3.4 Thin-film technologies

Thin-film solar cells are considered the second generation and are obtained
by depositing one or more thin layers of PV material on a substrate, such as
glass, plastic, or metal. Different materials are used in thin-film technologies
(Fig. 1.6), such as CdTe, CIGS, and amorphous (a-Si) or micro/nanocrys-
talline silicon (mc-Si). A common feature of these materials is their direct
band gap, which allows a very efficient absorption of light even when their
thickness is small. Amorphous silicon has been extensively studied starting
with its introduction as a reliable power source of watches, clocks, and cal-
culators in the late 1980s (some examples will be reported in Chapter 10 of
this book [20]). On the other hand, CdTe commercial applications have
been slightly limited due to the usage of cadmium, which proved to be
harmful to both the producer and the consumer. However, CIGS and
CdTe are much more promising in terms of energy conversion efficiency
than a-Si.
A detailed review of thin-film technologies was recently presented by
Lee and Ebong [22]. Here we give just a brief summary of the main achieve-
ments in the field.
Thin-film a-Si material is typically obtained by plasma-enhanced chem-
ical vapor deposition (PECVD) from Si- and H-containing precursor gases,
like silane and hydrogen. These amorphous films contain a high amount of
hydrogen, as reported for the first time in 1969 by Chittick, Alexander, and
Sterling, resulting in a lower defect density and increased photoconductivity.
Few years later, in 1975, Le Comber and Spear discovered the possibility of
substitutional doping of a-Si:H using phosphine (n-type) or diborane
(p-type), which was a fundamental step toward the realization of a solar
cell device [23].
Even if a-Si suffers from lower electronic performance compared to crys-
talline silicon, in particular for solar PV, it can provide some advantages for
specific and novel applications. For example, amorphous silicon thin films
produce savings on silicon material cost. Moreover, thin films are flexible,
and PECVD deposition is a low temperature process, which can be done
not only on glass but also on plastic substrates, making it a candidate for a
roll-to-roll processing technique. Noteworthy, the band gap of thin-film
amorphous silicon is about 1.7 eV, corresponding to 730 nm. This puts a
limitation to the available region of the solar spectrum that can be absorbed.
However, since the whole visible spectral region can be converted in elec-
tricity, it makes it a very suitable low-cost PV material for the wide market of
indoor PV and for powering Internet of Things (IoT) devices. This
emerging and exciting subject of indoor lighting will be widely discussed
in Chapter 10 [20].
To shift the spectral absorption band toward the longer wavelengths, mi-
cro/nanocrystalline silicon thin films can be realized, which are made of an
amorphous silicon matrix containing small silicon crystals. This results in the
possibility to combine different silicon thin layers (a-Si/mc-Si) in a multi-
junction device where the spectral absorption region is controlled by the
size of the crystallites in each layer. Following this idea, researchers of the
Research Center for Photovoltaics obtained in March 2018 the world
record efficiency (14.0%) for a triple junction device based on silicon
thin-film technology (Fig. 1.6) [24,25].
The structure of a CIGS solar cell is built on a soda lime glass as the
substrate (Fig. 1.8). On top of the glass is the molybdenum contact, then
the p-type Cu(InGa)Se2 forms the main junction with n-type CdS, which
serves as the buffer layer. An intrinsic zinc oxide layer lies on top of the
CdS and, finally, the n-type ZnO:Al layer functions as the front contact.
Altogether, the semiconductor used in this solar cell is only 4 mm thick,
much lower than in conventional silicon solar cells (about 180 mm). A sig-
nificant device improvement has occurred since the first thin-film CIGS
solar cell was realized by Kazmerski et al. [26] in 1976, having a conversion
efficiency of 4.5%. Nowadays, the efficiency record for CIGS thin-film solar
cells has been published by researchers at Atsugi Research Center, Solar
Frontier K. K., with a value of 22.9% [27]. The main improvement was
obtained by modifying the absorber formation, reducing defect density, as
suggested by the enhanced photoluminescence performance. As a result,
the significant enhancements in open circuit voltage (Voc) and fill factor
(FF) led to the achievement of this record-breaking efficiency. However,
the same company has announced in January 2019 a new record at
23.35% [28].
Figure 1.8 (A) Cross-sectional SEM image (left) and schematic structure of a copper in-
dium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cell. By L. Kazmerski, National Renewable Energy
Laboratory. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work
prepared by an officer or employee of the US Government as part of that person’s official
duties under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.
Finally, also the evolution of CdTe solar cell devices followed a signifi-
cant growth from the first laboratory CdTe cell reported in 1972 by Bonnet
and Rabenhorst, who developed a thin-film graded gap CdTe-CdS pen
heterojunction solar cell with 6% efficiency. In this field, as for CIGS solar
devices, the most advanced industrial equipment and process optimization
capabilities are playing the major role, with first solar dominating the past
decade, with the highest record efficiency set at 22.1% (Fig. 1.6).
Thin-film technologies are an important sector of the PV market. How-
ever, some concerns are arising about the shortage and toxicity of materials
used in CIGS and CdTe solar cells, both related to material supplying and to
their disposal and recycling process. Moreover, the stability issues, in partic-
ular for a-Si, are also limiting aspects for market permeation. At the same
time, the low-cost manufacturing and continuous rising of efficiencies of
crystalline silicon technologies, together with the increasing exploration of
alternative approaches in next-generation PV technologies, are seriously
affecting the future of these traditional thin-film solar cells. Indeed, their
market share is constantly decreasing after their peak of 17% in 2009, to less
than 5% in 2017 [29].
1.3.5 Emerging photovoltaics

Besides the traditional approaches previously described, some innovative and
emerging technologies have gained attention in the scientific community. A
significant part of this book will be focused on these novel materials for PV
applications; therefore, we will just mention their main aspects in the
following lines.
The first real breakthrough in solar cells after silicon was represented by
DSSCs, which were first developed by Gr€atzel and O’Regan in 1991 at UC
Berkeley [30]. A modern DSSC is composed of a porous layer of titanium
dioxide nanoparticles (NPs), covered with a molecular dye that absorbs sun-
light, like the chlorophyll in green leaves. The titanium dioxide is immersed
in an electrolyte solution, above which is a platinum-based catalyst. Sunlight
absorbed by the dye can excite electrons that then flow into the titanium
dioxide and then toward the transparent electrode. After flowing through
the external circuit, they are reintroduced into the cell on a metal electrode
on the back, flowing into the electrolyte, which transports the electrons
back to the dye molecules [31].
A detailed description of the evolution and latest advances in DSSC is
given in Chapter 4 of this book [32]. DSSCs, however, are still at their
development stage. Some novel advances include codoping of TiO2 layer
with quantum dots [33], plasmonic metal NPs [34], or carbon-related
materials (nanotubes, graphene) [35] to increase the current transport
properties, using solid-state electrolytes for better temperature response
and changing the doping of the TiO2 to better match it with the electrolyte
being used.
Another significant emerging field is that of PSCs. PSCs are based on an
absorber with ABX3 perovskite crystal structure where “A” and “B” are
cation elements and “X” is an anion element. Originally, the terminology
of “perovskite” materials was accepted in the first half of the 19th century,
when the group of Lev Perovski and Gustav Rose discovered a minerald
CaTiO3 with ABX3 structure. Hybrid organiceinorganic halide PSCs
have risen to stardom owing to the peculiar characteristics of the halide
perovskite absorber, such as high charge carrier mobility, broad and strong
optical absorption, long free carrier diffusion length, low exciton binding
energy, as well as their cost-effective and easy solution process manufacture.
Noteworthy, PSCs have achieved remarkable progress with power
conversion efficiency (PCE), developing from 3.8% in 2009 to 23.7% in

2018. The main aspects and perspectives of this technology will be presented
in Chapter 5 of this book [36].
Organic or polymer solar cells (OSCs) have also attracted tremendous
attention owing to their great potential for large-area production with
low-cost materials and simple solution processing method. OSCs usually
consist of an electron- or hole-blocking layer on top of an indium tin oxide
(ITO) conductive glass, followed by an electron donor and an electron
acceptor (in the case of bulk heterojunction solar cells), a hole or electron
blocking layer, and a metal electrode on top. Among them, ternary OSCs
featuring multiple light harvesting materials in one active layer have
emerged as one of the most promising strategies to improve PV perfor-
mance. The PCE of ternary OSCs has approached 14.62%. In Chapter 3
of this book, the development of ternary OSCs based on different systems
is summarized, as well as the main working mechanisms and the potential
research directions and perspectives [37].
Finally, all-oxide solar cells promise to provide vacuum-free and
low-cost solutions, based on Earth’s abundant and environmentally friendly
materials. While oxides can exhibit high extinction coefficient in the visible
and near-infrared region (NIR) spectral regions, guaranteeing full absorp-
tion of sunlight, the main factor limiting efficiency in such kind of pen
junction devices is the low hole mobility in the p-type oxide, which repre-
sents the main challenge to be overcome to make this technology compet-
itive. Chapter 6 illustrates the latest results in the field, including integration
of nanowire geometries as viable solution toward fast charge transport and
collection [38].
1.4 Efficiency of solar cells

The basic model of a traditional PV cell is represented by a semicon-
ductor pen junction (Fig. 1.9A), with metallic contacts deposited on the top
and bottom [39]. A detailed description of this device is reported in Chapter
7 of this book [40]. In summary, due to the diffusion of majority carriers, a
depletion region is established across the pen junction, with the building up
of an electric field and potential difference between the two regions.
Photons incoming into the cell’s active area, corresponding to this depletion
region, have the potential to give their energy (hn) to electrons and to
generate if hn Eg (band gap energy of the semiconductor), an electrone
hole pair. This pair is suddenly divided by the present electric field, resulting
(A) sunlight
(B) l
Depletion
p+ Layer
Electron flow
photonic
electron dark
excitation Ec
photonic Ef
electron
excitation V
Ev
Hole flow n+
Electric current flow illuminated
Rload
Figure 1.9 (A) Illustration of a solar cell device structure in the form of pen diode with
external load. (B) JeV characteristic of the solar cell in the dark and under illumination.
Reproduced from P.S. Priambodo, N.R. Poespawati, D. Hartanto, Solar Cell, in: Kosyachenko
(Ed.), Sol. Cells - Silicon Wafer-Based Technol., IntechOpen, 2011.
in a generated photocurrent (IL). In practice, the JeV characteristic of a solar

cell under illumination (Fig. 1.9B) is obtained by shifting downward by IL
the JeV characteristic of the same diode in the dark.
Four important parameters can be defined when dealing with solar cells.
The first parameter is the short circuit current (ISC), which is measured when
the output terminal is shorted, or V is equal to 0. This value of output cur-
rent ISC represents the maximum current provided by the solar cell at a
certain illumination level. The second parameter is the open circuit voltage
(VOC), which is measured when the output terminal is opened, or I is equal
to 0. This value of output voltage VOC represents the maximum voltage of
solar cell at a certain illumination level. In Fig. 1.9B, the maximum delivery
output power (PMP) is represented by the area of product VMP by IMP as the
maximum possible area included within the curve and the axes.
The third parameter is the fill factor (FF) that represents the ratio
between the maximum power PMP and the product VOC times ISC:
PMP VMP $IMP
FF ¼
¼ (1.1)
VOC $ISC VOC $ISC
This parameter gives an idea of how squared the output characteristic of
the cell is, and for real devices it is typically between 0.7 and 0.85. Finally,
the fourth parameter is the efficiency (h). The efficiency of a solar cell is
defined as the ratio of the electrical energy output to the total incoming sun-
light energy striking the surface of the cell. Many parameters affect the deter-
mination of the overall efficiency, which depends on the architecture and
materials of the cell, their sensitivity to the different wavelengths of the solar
spectrum, the intensity of the incident light, the working temperature, the
surface reflectivity and texturing, the efficiency in the generation of
electronehole pairs, and the capability of subsequent extraction of these
charge carriers without losses. The efficiency can be written as
VMP $IMP VOC $ISC $FF
h¼ ¼ (1.2)
Pin Pin
The four key parameters described above are controlled by the materials
that constitute the solar cell, and some discussions are presented in other
chapters of this book (e.g., see organic SC in Chapter 3 [37], dye-
sensitized SC in Chapter 4 [32], and perovskite SC in Chapter 5 [36]).
Furthermore, the parameters also depend on the spectral properties and
intensity of light illumination (e.g., see the discussion on indoor lighting
conditions in Chapter 10 [20]).
A detailed analysis of the factors affecting energy conversion efficiency
was presented in a landmark paper by William Shockley and Hans Queisser
in 1961 [41].
Among the factors concerning energy losses, firstly we can consider the
losses due to blackbody radiation. In the case of solar cells at standard tem-
perature and pressure, this loss accounts for about 7% of the power. The sec-
ond factor is due to possible electronehole recombination events. In silicon,
for example, this accounts for another 10% of the power. However, the
third and dominant energy loss mechanism is related to the spectral response
of the solar cell active material. This is because the photons with energy (hn)
below the energy gap of the semiconductor are not able to generate
electronehole pairs and are lost. Conversely, photons with more energy
than the band gap initially eject an electron to a state high above the band
gap, but this extra energy is lost through collisions in internal relaxation
paths. This lost energy turns into heat in the cell, which has the side effect
of further increasing blackbody losses [42].
Combining all these factors, the maximum theoretical efficiency for a
single-band gap material, like conventional silicon cells, is about 34%. An
analysis of the AM1.5 spectrum shows that the best balance is reached at
about 1.1 eV (1100 nm, in the near-infrared), which happens to be very
close to the natural band gap in silicon (Fig. 1.10) [43].
To overcome the ShockleyeQueisser limit, a significant efficiency
increase can be obtained by employing different semiconductor materials
to cover different regions of the solar spectrum. These MJSCs, as described
in the previous section, combined with concentrated solar light geometry,
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“There was hardly any opposition.” It was meager but she could not go
on without seeming to run into a forbidden or aching subject.
There they had to stop. Helen had a vision of the closed topics between
them, a sudden horror of this cleavage. Suppose he didn’t see that he was
foolish, that she was not treating him badly, that she must lay up something
for herself as a person against the day when he himself might weary of her
as a woman. Fiercely she recast her arguments in her own mind. Yet there
was that tired look in his eyes. You can fight rancor but not weariness.
“How is Miss Thorstad getting on?”
“Fine. It was a great hunch. You know she actually saves me a lot of
thinking. It shows that a girl with wits is worth half a dozen expert
stenographers. She has an air about her that is dignified and calm and yet
she’s not a stick.”
“I imagine there’s a volcanic soul under that rather calm exterior.”
“Perhaps.”
“Gage, you look tired.”
He made a visible effort to rouse himself.
“Tired? Why, no, dear. Not especially.”
“What are we to do to-night?”
“I have some work to-night.”
She looked somewhat baffled as the door closed after him a half hour
later. Then going to the telephone she called Margaret. Margaret was not at
home. Helen read for an hour and went to bed early.
Gage had meant to work. But he was not working. He was fighting on
through a cloud of bitterness and of thoughts which he knew were not
wholly unreasonable. He was sitting at his littered desk, all the
paraphernalia of work strewn about him and a picture of Helen on his desk
confronting him, accenting his trouble. There she was. He had only to close
his eyes and he saw her even more clearly, breaking through the clouded
doubts of his mind as she had done in the first days of his marriage—
clearness, peace, the one real beauty in the world, the one real truth in the
world—Helen—love. And she had said she wanted to be “clean of sex!” He
scowled at the thought but it danced before him defiling his memories. It
would not go! From those early days, those days of the “hardening process”
there had persisted always in Gage secret faith, fading now to a hope,
flaring now to a conviction that sex was clean, was beautiful until some
other agency defiled it. He remembered still his tortured adolescent mind
revolving around the problems of the mysteries of birth, stirring him to
wonder and the leering clandestine ugly talk which seemed an ugly
wrapping around the wonder. He had always thought that his son would
have no such tortures. His own proven conviction would carry the boy
through all doubts. Now he seemed cast back in the mire of his own old
doubts. Had Helen always felt defiled? Had all their life been a hideous
mixture of shame and complacencies and hidden revulsions? Had they
really conquered nothing? Or was there nothing to conquer? Was he over-
fastidious, unmanly? Was the necessary thing to blunt once more, this time
permanently, these illusions of his—to go home to Helen and play the part
of the demanding husband, demanding concession in return for concession?
Laugh at her whims, her fads, quarrel with her if necessary. If she must run
to her conventions, let her go. And let him coarsen his feeling so it was
willing to take what was left of her.
He wiped his forehead impatiently. It was damp and that sign of his
intensity shamed him. He had learned that the revealing of emotion was
man’s shame, to be hidden at all costs. Helen had given him a final lesson in
that. Angrily he flung himself into his work, concentrating actually with his
will for hours, mastering the intricacies of the question on which he must
give an opinion in the morning. When he had done his notes lay ready. He
cleaned up the litter of papers, a little frown on his face and looked at his
watch. Nearly midnight. He must go home.
All the practical machinery of locking up, starting the car, steering,
driving into the garage, locking the garage, turning out the lights in the
library. Nothing was different from other nights. He was a man in his own
house. But over the formalism of his actions and his deliberate definiteness
of conscious thought his mind was in battle. He was trying to kill the part of
him that cried out against going to his wife in such a mood. He was trying
deliberately to kill it with a blunt edged thought which read “Be a man—not
a neurasthenic.” He cursed himself under his breath. He was no damned
temperamental actor to carry on like this (Always, always, that choking
necessity for repressing these feelings, concealing the fact of feeling). A
married man—seven years—rights—duties—nature—foolish whims—but
above that persisted the almost tortured cry of his spirit, struggling with the
hotness of desire, begging, for its life—“Don’t go home like a beast to her!”
III
In the morning Helen was again worried by his appearance.

“What time did you come in, Gage?”
“About midnight.”
“You look as if you’d slept wretchedly. Did you?”
“Well, enough.” His tone was surly. He could not bear to look at her,
shining haired, head held high, confidence, strength, balance of mind,
justice, radiating from her. He knew what a contrast he made—she did not
need to tell him of his heavy, encircled eyes, his depressed mouth.
She pushed his hair back from his forehead, standing beside his chair. It
was a familiar gesture between them.
“Gage, you mean more than anything else to me. You know that?”
He mumbled an answer.
“But don’t resent it so awfully because I can’t believe that loving is a
woman’s only job. We mustn’t absorb each other.”
Quoted, he thought bitterly, from Margaret Duffield. Quite reasonable
too. Very reasonable. He suddenly hated her for her reasoning which was
denied to his struggling instincts. All desire, all love in his heart had curdled
to a sodden lump of resentment.
He picked up the paper. There was Helen, marching across the page,
smiling into the camera’s eyes. Curious men with hats and crowding
women showed in the blurred background. He looked from the picture to
the real Helen.
“Very good picture.”
His tone was disagreeable. And he had not answered her appeal.
“Be fair, Gage.”
Very well, he would be fair.
“I haven’t the smallest sympathy with all this, Helen. I know you regard
that as unreasonable. It may be that I am. But I don’t believe you’re bigger
or better because of all this. You’ve done it from no spirit of conviction but
because you were flattered into doing it. The Duffield girl is simply using
you for her own convictions. With her they at least are convictions. But
with you they’re not.”
“That’s quite enough, thanks, Gage.”
He was cruelly glad he had hurt her. How it helped the ache in his own
heart!
Helen thought: “He’s jealous of Margaret. Terribly jealous. It’s abnormal
and disgusting. What has happened to him?” She let him leave the house
with what was almost a little life of spirits when he had gone. She had not
time to sift these feelings of Gage now. Later, if they persisted. She
wondered if he should see a doctor, thought for a moment of psycho-
analysis, speculating as to whether that might set him straight. But the
telephone began ringing frantically.
CHAPTER XII
GREGORY LECTURES
T HE committee on entertainment of visiting lecturers had called upon

Gregory at his hotel and been pleased. He had the ear-marks of
eccentricity, to be sure, but in their capacity of hostesses they were used
to that. Geniuses might not live in St. Pierre but they were frequently
imported thither and as a matter of fact several had grown there, though
their wings had been only budding when they had taken themselves to the
denser air of the great cities.
They had met him now and he pleased them. His fine courtesy, the slight
exaggeration of his manner, his deference to their arrangements and his lack
of pompousness charmed them. They withdrew after he had politely but
firmly refused invitations for either lunch or dinner saying that he must
concentrate before his talk. He neglected to mention that he was
concentrating on Freda and was planning to meet her at a lunch room
outside her office where she had said they would have a chance to talk.
A clean, white table needing no cloths to cover its shining metal surface
with two bowls of oyster stew, steaming very hot, furnished him and Freda
their occasion.
She told him Margaret had asked for him.
“And you told her?”
“That I was having dinner with you to-night. I didn’t mention lunch.
Wasn’t that ridiculously secretive?”
“It was deliciously secret.”
“I don’t think I should monopolize all your time, though,” she demurred.
“Freda!” He was frowning now. “You aren’t going to waste time like
that, are you? You aren’t going to hint at cheapness and little crippled
conventions, are you?”
“No, I’m not. I was just saying—words. I wasn’t thinking. I suppose I
was trying to hold you off for a minute for some obscure reason.”
He glanced at her very tenderly.
“You needn’t hold me off, darling. But it’s such a short time. And there’s
nothing in the world as wise as to seize the cup of joy when it’s full. There’s
an undiscoverable leak in that cup and it empties if you dawdle over it. It
may be accident—death—or human perversity—almost anything. I’m so
sure our cup is full now that I want to drink it with you quickly. Listen—
there’s nothing in the world against it except that some person whom
neither of us cares about at all might say we weren’t considered—were too
hasty. For the sake of that obscure person whom we don’t know, you aren’t
going to send me away, are you?”
She was hesitant.
“It doesn’t trouble you longer that I came out here to see Margaret
Duffield, does it?”
“A little,” she answered honestly.
“It shouldn’t. It shouldn’t and it mustn’t. With her it was all argument
and all tangle—with you it was like a flash of light.”
“I don’t want her to matter,” said Freda, “I always have wanted my love
to come like this. Without question. Fearlessly.”
“Then you will, darling?”
“I don’t care about the rest, but there’s father. I hate to not tell him.”
“Will he hate it when you’re happy?”
“He’ll love it.”
“Then—listen. I shall tell him—later. I’ll tell him that I always prayed
that when I married I wouldn’t have to have the eyes of the world on the
coming of my bride. That my wedding should be secret and holy. If we
could tell him without the rest knowing—but he would tell your mother,
wouldn’t he?”
“And mother would want a wedding,” said Freda, a little drearily.
He leaned across to touch her hand.
“You don’t think it’s furtive—clandestine?”
“Oh, no!”
“Do you want me to go?”
“No—”
“I must go on, you see—those damned lectures. I must have the money.
And I must go through to Spokane. I could ask you to wait until I got back
but, darling—what’s the use of waiting? What’s the use of waiting? We
could be married to-morrow—and have Sunday together. Then—then—we
could wait for each other. Or you could come with me—”
“No, we couldn’t, Gregory. It’s too expensive. You know we couldn’t.”
She was so definite that his face fell. At the sight of it she smiled and
reassured him.
“I shan’t mind a bit not having any money.”
“Money’s a nuisance. But I want enough of it—I’ll earn enough of it to
take you to Ireland with me, when I come back in six weeks.”
Her forehead was a little knit. He went on eagerly.
“I’ve never been so practical. You wouldn’t believe what a man of
affairs—American affairs—I’ve been. I looked up the name of a little
hamlet where we could go to-morrow afternoon and be married by
sundown. And then, sweetheart, an eternity of a day before us—and
immortality to look forward to.”
“And no one to know.”
“Unless you wish it—no one.”
“I don’t wish it. It sounds dangerous and mad—but if I don’t, Gregory, I
know I’ll regret it all the rest of my life. It’s my chance to prove life. It’s not
as if I had the faintest doubt of you—”
“Never have I been married,” he laughed, “I’m poor and that’s the worst
of me. You can read all about me in the papers to-day. They tell the worst.”
“Freda, darling, I’ve always wanted to steal the secret of life. Come with
me—and we can do it.”
There was a flame in her eyes—a response as urgent as his call.
“That’s what I’ve wanted too—all my life.”
The waitress at their table glanced at them impatiently. They dallied too
long—this gawky, skinny, black haired young fellow and the girl in the dark
blue cape. Making love, all right. She was a pretty girl too, but no style. All
that heavy, yellow hair half slipping down her neck. She’d do with a bob.
She had a still greater impatience as she searched the table in vain for the
tip they had forgotten.
II
The committee in the ante-room glanced cheerfully in at the crowd

gathering for Gregory’s lecture. They had hoped for a big audience but it
was a bad week. The town was full of the Convention delegates and in little
mood for lectures, they had feared. But people came. Fully a thousand
people had gathered to hear the lecture on Ireland and its Poetry.
They wondered a little at some of the people who bought tickets at the
door—men whom they were sure never had attended any lecture under their
auspices before. That was because they did not know that Gregory
Macmillan’s name was one familiar to other circles than the literary poetic
ones—that his vigor in the Irish Republican cause had been told even on
this side of the Atlantic. There were those who would have come to hear a
lecture of no other subject—Irishmen who had heard his name and subject
announced at their meeting of the Knights of Columbus. The literary-
minded, the students, the people who patronized the lectures of the
Collegiate Alumnae as they did all semi-social affairs, sat side by side in the
hall and watched Gregory as he came out from the faded wings at one side
of the amateur stage.
Margaret Duffield, Carpenter, Helen and a rather unwilling Gage had
adjoining seats. Gage had been extremely disrespectful in his
characterization of the lecture, the society which gave it and the presumable
character of the man who was to give it, especially as he learned that he was
a friend of Margaret’s.
Yet it was Gage who enjoyed the lecture most. From the opening
sentence it was clear that the discussion of Irish Poetry was to Gregory
merely a discussion of Ireland. In Ireland to be a poet meant that one
thought deeply enough to be a patriot. All his poets were patriots.
He made no specific indictment of England except as he read with
passionate fervor the translation of Padraic Pearse from the old Irish—
“The world hath conquered, the wind hath scattered like dust
Alexander, Cæsar, and all that shared their sway.
Tara is grass, and behold how Troy lieth low,
And even the English, perchance their hour will come!”
It was a quotation and he did not comment on its content. But he
sketched the lives of some of his poets—his friends—his leaders. He made
their dream clear—their simple idealism—their ignoring of the politics of
expediency—their lives so chaste and beautiful. He told of their homes,
their schools,—and sometimes when he ended simply, “He was killed in the
attack of ——, shot by the military”—or more briefly, “He was executed on
——,” a shudder ran through his audience.
He would show the gayety of Ireland, the joy of the people, their
exuberance—and end with a simple “Of course it is not like that now. There
is much grief and mourning.”
It was not politics. It was a prose poem composed by a poet. One could
not take exception to it as political but the hearers would forever have their
standpoints colored by what he said. It was like a picture which, once seen,
could never be forgotten.
Margaret listened, her ready mind taking exception to some of the things
he said, seeing how he played upon his audience—Walter and Helen
listened with intellectual appreciation. But Gage, slouched down in his seat
felt envy grow in him. There was before him what he had always wanted. A
man who had something indestructible, something immortal to care for. A
conviction—and an ideal—an outlet for his soul. He felt himself cheated.
He liked too to listen to the poems about women. No controversial
tirades these poems—but verses soft and sweet and pliable as the essence of
women—once had been. He checked his running thoughts and looked at his
wife, sitting beside him with her head high, “conscious of herself, every
minute now,” he thought bitterly.
CHAPTER XIII
LIFE ENTRUSTED
F REDA worked until noon the next day. Saturday was a half holiday with
the employees of the firm so there was no question of her remaining in
the office longer. All morning she worked steadily, almost absorbedly. It
was as if she held her ecstasy off from her, unwilling to even think about it
yet.
She had spent the night before, after the lecture to which she went alone,
in writing a letter to her father. It was a long intimate letter, telling of the
kind of work she was doing, the way she was living and of what she was
thinking. She wrote as if she were talking to him, on and on, and her ending
was like the conclusion of a talk, as if she asked for his blessing. “So you
see, father dear, I’m all right. And I want you to know that I never forget
what you’ve said to me—that I must live so that I’ll never be ashamed of
having had life entrusted to me.”
She was really not afraid at all. Her demurring had been only the
mechanical reactions of conventions which sat lightly on her. In her heart
she knew that she was at home with Gregory and that the completeness of
their mutual understanding could mean only that they belonged together.
Gregory, like her father, reassured her. In the midst of his impetuousness,
his driving thinking, she felt the purity without which he could not have
been quite so free. She felt his kindness too, and the gentleness of his hands.
He was like her father, she thought. Her father had perhaps had the glory of
adventure in him too once, but it had been made submissive to
circumstance. It had left its residue of understanding. She felt very sure that
when he knew he would be glad.
Physically her fine fearlessness and eager nerves kept her from any
reaction, or from any of the terrors, real or assumed, which women have
come to believe right and modest at the approach of marriage. And minor
faults of Gregory she never paused to consider. It would not have occurred
to her that it was a fitting time to look for them. Little problems, living
difficulties troubled her serene health not at all. She would have been
ashamed to measure them up against her love. The latent spirit of adventure
in her, her fine romantic training, taken from books and preserved because
of her limited knowledge of people, were like winds blowing her on to the
heart of her romance.
With all this strength and surety, this Ali Baba’s cave of beauty to
explore, it was yet characteristic of her that she could work. She had been in
the office four days and already her place was made. It was easy to see that
she was intelligently competent and to know that her efficiency was not a
matter of making a first impression. They all liked her and she already was
beginning to lighten work for various people.
Flandon was not at the office at all on Saturday. He called up in the
course of the morning and speaking briefly to Freda told her to tell Mr.
Sable that he was going out of town over the week-end and would be back
for the hearing of the Kraker case on Monday morning. That made it easier
for Freda. She had a little fear that there might have been some extra duty
for her on this Saturday afternoon which would wreck the golden plans. So
at noon she put her desk in order—she was beginning to feel her
proprietorship in a desk now—and went back to her room to get her bag,
packed the night before.
She had meant to leave a note for Miss Duffield, but by chance she met
her on the stairs. Margaret looked at the bag and made her own quick
deduction.
“Going home for the week-end?”
“I’ll be back Monday,” said Freda, feeling rather rotten as she let
Margaret’s misunderstanding pass.
But she forgot about that. She forgot everything as she went out in the
street full of May sunshine and ran for the street-car which would take her
to the railway station. There, in the noon crowd, she put her bag between
her feet and hung on to the strap above her head, unable to keep the smile
from her face any longer.
Gregory was there waiting for her. And at the first word he spoke, his
spirit of exalted happiness carried Freda up into the heights. He had a word
of endearment for her and then with her bag and his held in one hand, he
managed with the other to hold her close to his side and they went to find
their train.
There was an empty seat. That was the first piece of luck, when the train
already looked impossibly full of men and women and families, setting out
with baggage which overflowed from the seats to the aisles. But there was
the seat, at the end of the coach, undiscovered yet, or perhaps miraculously
set apart for them—made invisible to other searchers—its red plush surface
cleanly brushed for the journey and a streak of sunlight like a benison
across the back of it.
Freda slipped in beside the window and, placing their baggage in the
little rack, with a touch that was almost reverent for Freda’s bag, Gregory
sat down beside her.
“We have an hour and forty minutes,” he declared, “and look, my
darling.” He took out of his pocket a tiny white box, but, as she stretched
her hand, he put it away again.
“You mustn’t see it. Not yet. But I wanted you to know I had it. It’s the
most divine circlet of gold you ever saw. The halo of my wife.”
His voice was very soft and tender, the contact of his body against hers
caressing.
A boy went by with sandwiches. They surprised each other by regarding
him intently and then it occurred to Freda why they did so.
“Did you forget lunch too?” she cried.
So they lunched on ham sandwiches and Peters’ milk chocolate and
water in sanitary paper cups and the train creaked into action, joltingly, as
befitted a day coach in a local train.
Little stations twinkled by with sudden life and between them lay fields
and valleys where life pushed quietly to the sun. They watched the villages
with tenderness. Each one unexplored was a regret. There were so many
things to be happy with. A child came running up to get a drink of water
and leaned on the edge of their seat, staring at them curiously. They liked
that. It seemed as if the child guessed their riot of joy and peace.
They had found that it was necessary for the haste of their marriage to go
over the borderline of the state, a matter of forty miles. And they alighted in
a little town of which they knew nothing. It was impressive as they looked
about. Straight neat roads led away from the red roofed station.
“I’d like to walk into the country,” said Freda.
“So we shall. But first we must be married.”
He left her in the parlor of the little hotel while he went to find the
justice of the peace. In half an hour he was back, exultant.
“Nothing dares to hamper us,” he declared. “Now, beloved.”
So they were married, in the little bare office of the justice of the peace,
with a clerk from the court called in to witness that they were made man
and wife by law. Gregory slipped the “circlet of gold” on the finger of his
wife and as he made answers to the questions put to him, his eyes were on
Freda as if he spoke to her alone, as if to her alone was he making this
pledge of faith and loyalty and love. Freda did not look at him. For the
moment she was fulfilling her pledge to life and Gregory was its
instrument.
Then they were out again in the sunlight, choked with emotion, silent.
Vaguely they walked back to the hotel. It was mid-afternoon.
“Shall we stay at the hotel?” asked Gregory.
“It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all. Only it would be nicer in the
country, wouldn’t it?”
“There should be inns,” said Gregory, frowning for the first time that day
as he looked at the square, ugly, frame building which was before them, a
knot of curious loafers on the porch. “In Ireland we have inns. They’re
somehow different.”
“I truly don’t care where we are,” smiled Freda and for that his eyes
glanced down to hers with admiration.
None the less he went to inspect the little rooms of the hotel and came
down depressed.
“I don’t want you to go up there, darling. Let’s see if there isn’t some
other place.”
The hotel keeper, clerk and manager, reflected on the inquiry which
Gregory tried to make polite.
“Of course there’s the Roadside Inn if you’re looking for style. Five
miles out. Jitney take you there.”
“I know that place,” said Freda, “That’s lovely, Gregory. Oh, I think
you’d like it. Only it may be noisy. They dance there at night.”
The proprietor misunderstood.
“So far as dancing goes here we dance here till midnight too,” he said,
full of pride.
Gregory laughed.
“Well, sir, we think we’d like to be in the country to-day. We’ll try the
inn you so kindly speak of.”
The jitney ride gave them further sense of adventure and when they
stopped in front of the little inn with its quiet air and its stiff little
flowerbeds aglow with red geraniums, they were enchanted. Their room
pleased them too. A little low-ceilinged room with bright chintzes and
painted furniture and a casement window that stood a little open. The
colored man who played the fiddle at night, carried up their bags. When he
had left them, Gregory kissed his wife.
Ten minutes later they went down the brown road where the dust lay soft
under their feet. White birches and young elders all fresh and green with
early summer foliage surrounded them. Then from the road a little trodden
path slipped back into the woods.
“Shall we try it?”
The woods closed behind them. The little path led a faltering way
between trees where long streams of sunlight fell. Under their feet grass
rustled. Branches leaned to touch them. All the woods seemed to know that
lovers were passing and whispered tremulously.
Gregory heard the whispers and turned to the girl at his side. Each heart
heard the other as he stopped to hold her in his embrace until they grew
faint with joy.
“I love you, Freda,” said the man, ever restless.
Freda smiled at him. It was all she could do. Demonstrations of love
were new to her. She was unbent, ready for caresses but not yet quite
responsive except in the fine clarity of her mind. It was Gregory who must
stop to bring her hand to his lips, to hold her against him for a silent
moment.
The woods grew thinner.
“Ah, look,” cried Freda, “the enchanted woods end in a farmhouse
yard!” She was standing on a little knoll and beneath them could be seen
the farmhouse and its buildings, a group of children, perhaps the very ones
who had trodden the path on their daily way to school.
“I like it,” said Gregory. “It’s love bending into life. Don’t you like to
see it from here—like a pastoral picture? Children, kittens, the thin woman
going to carry the scraps to the chickens. See, Freda—isn’t life beautiful?”
Freda saw it through his poet’s vision for a moment. It was truly beautiful—
the group held together by the common interest of procreation and
maintenance—but she saw that more beautiful still were the eyes of
Gregory. She had a sudden feeling that she must never dim his vision.
Whatever might come she must protect that vision even though, as now, she
might see that the farm below was full of signs of neglect and that the
children quarreled.
They turned back and sat on the trunk of a fallen tree and he took off her
hat and stroked her hair gently as she lay against his arm. They did not talk
much. Incomplete little phrases in constant reiteration of their own
happiness. Those were all.
The dusk came early and damply in the woods. They went back to the
Inn, a little chilled, and Freda brushed her hair into neatness and went down
to meet her husband in the dining-room. It was a strange and familiar
feeling to see him standing by the door waiting for her. They were very
hungry and talkative now. With the darkness outside, intimacy pressed
closer upon them and they were shy of it, deliciously shy, enticing it closer
to them by their evasion of it.
So after their dinner they sat in the little guest parlor of the Inn and
watched each other, talking about irrelevancies until the whiz of a motor
outside made Freda start.
“You know, Gregory, I’d sooner go upstairs. I know some of the people
who sometimes come here. I’d rather not see them to-night.”
“Yes, darling.”
In their bed-room the muslin curtains were tugging at their sashes, trying
to pull themselves free. A breeze of thick soft coolness came through the
room. Freda felt as if her heart would burst with very wonder. Life to be
known so deeply—so soon. And, as was strange and frequent with her she
lost the sense of everything except Life, a strange mystery, a strange
progress, of which she was an inevitable part, spreading about her,
caressing her, absorbing her. She was not thinking of Gregory, until he
came, knocking so absurdly, so humbly on the fragile door that her mind
leapt into sudden pity, and personal love.
“You are like a white taper before the altar of love,” breathed Gregory.
Around them in the soft darkness the breeze played lightly. Beneath was
the sound of dance music, of occasional laughter. They heard nothing to
distress them in their complete isolation. Only when the music became
tender, falling into the languorous delicacy of a waltz it added witchery to
their rapture.
II
In the morning it was Gregory who was the practical one—Freda the
mystic. Her mind was filled with mystery and dulled with the pervading
sense of her husband. He was inconceivably more to her than he had been.
She was infinitely rich with thought and revelation and too languorous to
think. Gregory overwhelmed her. In his spirited tenderness, declaring her
the miracle bride of the world, talking an unending poem of love to her, he
was active now—she dreamy and spent. He brought her breakfast and sat
beside her while she ate it. And suddenly it became clear to them that their
time was slipping quickly by.
It had been the plan to return to the city that night but they found it
impossible to leave each other.
“If we rose with the dawn, we could motor back,” said Gregory, “and I
could take the train of abomination that is bearing me somewhere or other
into a barren country and you could be rid of me for a little. Oh, my darling,
the eternity of the next weeks!”
“The eternity that will come after!” she said smiling.
So they decided to spend another night in the little inn. There were
several other guests there but they had a feeling of owning the place. The
lean, colored waiter in the dining-room smiled at them and their absorption,
and gave them the attention he usually reserved for those too drunk to tip
wisely. The chambermaid found pins for a forgetful Freda and smirked at
her as she gave them, with full knowledge of the honeymoon. Even the
manager on being told they would stay another night, smiled.
Every one smiled. They went for a long walk in the evening and a carter
gave them a ride back to the inn. What was that but the charm of luck which
was upon them?
It was Sunday night but though there was no dancing, people dropped in
on motoring parties, ready to be warmed by hot suppers before they took
the last stretch of the ride back to the city. And it was as Freda was going
upstairs, still in that rapt absorption which had held her day that one of the
incomers saw her and stopped still in amazement. She was in profile before
him, her head held high and she was turning the curve of the stairs, walking
slowly.
The observer walked up to the desk and spoke to the manager who sat
making out bills behind it. There was no visible register, though his eyes
cast about for one.
“Who was the lady who was going upstairs?” he asked unwisely.
His manner did not recommend him.
“A lady who is stopping here,” said the Swedish lady with some
hostility, affronted by the casual question of this young gay fellow. She had
observed Freda and was unlikely to give out information to young loafers.
“I thought I knew her.” Ted Smillie tried to get on firmer ground.
His interlocutor seemed to grunt in dubiousness.
He gave it up and went into the dining-room, trying to find out more
from the waiter. But the waiter was not too free. He had not been in a
roadhouse inn three years without learning a kind of discretion.
“Lady and her husbun’, suh. Several couples here. Couldn’t make sure,
suh.”
But Ted knew whom he had seen. He knew there had been no mistake.
After all, except for a flare of jealousy, even that not too keen in his
increasingly tasteless emotions, he would have felt that the man did not
matter. But if she was that kind, why on earth had she turned him down?
That would be his reasoning. And, flavoring the whole, that vitiated
detective instinct which makes gossips of little minded men, was interested,
and he was anxious to tell his story. He did not choose the two men with
whom he was supping for confidants. He managed to get one of them to ask
to see the register, just on the chance that it might throw light on Freda’s
companion. But it did not help him. A party of young men and women had
sprawled twenty or thirty names on the register last night. Ted did not know
them and where that party began or ended he could not tell. There was not a
recorded name familiar to him for the last three days. He went back to the
city with his friends and the Roadside Inn grew quiet.
Freda and Gregory could not sleep. There seemed a million new
thoughts in the mind of each of them, contending with the few hours they
were to be together.
“I can’t bear to have morning come—and the end—” said Freda softly.
She was more dependent now.
“Say the word and I’ll cancel the contracts.”
“You couldn’t. You know you said there’d be a forfeit. We’d be paying
your bureau the rest of our lives. No—you must go. And I’ll be happy. But
when you come back you’ll never go again. I’ll be no modern woman, I
feel. I’ll be the sort of woman who cries when her husband goes to work.”
It was delightful nonsense.
“I don’t understand modern woman,” said Gregory, “you’re not modern.
Modern is fashionable—that’s the most of it. You are eternal, darling. You
only happen once in a thousand years and then only in the dream of a poet. I
hate your modern woman, living by her little codebook of what she shall
give and what she shall not give—what children she will bear, what income
she must have—who shall earn it. One can’t measure life that way. It’s got
to be measured by freedom or slavery. Either you’re free and brave, ready
to sound depths of life if they’re worth sounding or you’re a slave and too
cowardly to do anything but obey the rules.”
She did not answer. She was in no mood for discussion.
CHAPTER XIV
WHAT WAS TO BE EXPECTED
M ONDAY was busy in Sable and Flandon’s office. Conferences, a

dinning of telephones, a vast opening of mail. Every one was
conscious of important work in transaction. The Laidlaw case was
having its first hearing before the District Court and it was understood to be
worrying, ticklish business. The Judge was irascible and his point of view
of the case important from this first hearing. Both the partners were at the
office by half past nine and left together, one of the younger lawyers
accompanying them, much as young doctors are present at a skillful
operation, to learn and observe.
Freda, watching and hearing much of the office talk, discreet as it was,
wished she could have gone along too. She was feeling very fit, buoyed up
by the first strength of separation when it is a delight to feel one’s capacity
for cheerfulness and bravery in the midst of loneliness. She wanted to
plunge very hard into work, to do something important, to get thoroughly
absorbed in her work and not to dawdle into dreams. So she told herself
strongly. At night, when she was alone, she would live with her memories
and her dreams. It was youth’s swagger in the presence of emotion. She was
busy until Flandon left the office, making memoranda of things to be done,
getting papers for him, keeping him from telephone interruptions. But after
ten o’clock the office settled down and became quiet. The clerks were
hammering away endlessly at their typewriters, the few clients who came in
were quickly taken care of, and Freda found herself harder to control. She
was looking up a list of references that Mr. Flandon wanted ready by noon
and answering his telephone. It was not absorbing work. Try as she would,
her mind slipped away from her and concentrated on amazing facts.
She was a married woman. A week ago she had been a girl visiting at the
home of the Brownleys’. Rapid enough the events which had led to her
working here—but this other secret whirlwind—how strange it all was. She
wondered if lives were like that. Going along placidly enough until they
struck the edge of the waterfall of circumstance and then—. All lives must
have secret strange places. She had loved, in Mohawk, to reflect on those
sometimes. Spoon River had never quite gone out of her mind. She had
always, since she had read it, seen people as other than the reflection of
their acts and seeming—speculating on the curious contradictions of
appearances and motives. Here she sat, working, Gage Flandon’s clerk, Eric
Thorstad’s daughter. And those two things mattered not at all—gave no key
to her. It mattered only that she was the wife, the secret wife of a man
whom she had known six days. Physically, chemically, actually she was
altered. That was life. When you found it, you held it to you secretly. You
never told. That was why you couldn’t tell about people. Life might be
caressing them, making itself known to them, biting them. Over it all the
vast illusion of action. It was illusion.
The morning drifted by. At a little after twelve Mr. Sable and Mr.
Flandon came in together. It was easy to see that things had not gone well.
They were self-contained, sober, but the lines of Gage’s face were ugly and
those of his partner disapprovingly set. They went into Mr. Sable’s office
and closed the door. Freda, getting on her hat and coat, heard the young
lawyer who had accompanied them, speaking to a colleague.
“Didn’t go well. Flandon got Judge Pratt mad. Something got under
Flandon’s skin and he didn’t play the old judge very well.”
That was all she heard.
At the moment Gage was hearing the same thing. Sable was walking
about the office in some irritation explaining it.
Gage had continued to handle his work badly at the office. Like many a
man with a hobby he took his hobby into business hours. But the
concession which might be made to a man on account of golf, on account of
curling, were not to be made for a man who had a boresome way of
bringing in the eternal question of whether women were progressing or
“actually retrogressing,” “whether all this woman movement weren’t a
mistake,”—and so on. Needing support, comfort, consolation,
encouragement and direction, Gage, as he felt about for them, only became
somewhat absurd.
Men are not tolerant of those who bore them, except sometimes in the
family, where such things are endured for practical reasons. They moved
away from Gage, so to speak, while he talked on.

Solar Cells and Light Management Materials Strategies and Sustainability Francesco Enrichi Editor Full Download Chapter

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Solar Cells and Light Management Materials Strategies and Sustainability Francesco Enrichi Editor Full Download Chapter

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Solar Cells and Light Management:

Materials, Strategies and Sustainability

Copyright Ó 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

For information on all Elsevier publications visit our

Publisher: Matthew Deans

Typeset by TNQ Technologies

To my Dearest Ones, Marta and Nicoletta

The growth of global population and the ever-increasing energy consump-

environmental justice, human rights, and other nonquantiﬁable impacts of

the UV or visible spectral region, two or more photons at about 1 mm wave-

Solar cells’ evolution and

1.1 An introduction: economics, energy, and

Solar Cells and Light Management

Correspondingly, the measurements of the natural concentration of car-

Figure 1.3 Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide from 2005 to present, as

no universal agreement about the quantitative magnitude of anthropogenic

1.2 Solar photovoltaics: historical notes

perovskites, quantum dots, carbon nanotubes; their basic principles are

1.3 Main types of solar cells

1.3.1 Multijunction solar cells

1.3.2 Gallium arsenide single-junction solar cells

1.3.3 Silicon solar cells

1.3.4 Thin-ﬁlm technologies

1.3.5 Emerging photovoltaics

conversion efﬁciency (PCE), developing from 3.8% in 2009 to 23.7% in

1.4 Efﬁciency of solar cells

in a generated photocurrent (IL). In practice, the JeV characteristic of a solar

In the morning Helen was again worried by his appearance.

T HE committee on entertainment of visiting lecturers had called upon

The committee in the ante-room glanced cheerfully in at the crowd

WHAT WAS TO BE EXPECTED

M ONDAY was busy in Sable and Flandon’s office. Conferences, a

You might also like