Introduction

A photovoltaic cell uses light to produce small amounts of electricy. This process for
converting light to electricty was discovered by french scientist Edmond Becquerel, but the
process for converting light to electricity remained a mystery to science for half a century.
The conversion of light to electricy was first studied in solid materials, such as selenium, and
in the 1870's PV cells produced from selenium were being made with an effeciency rate of 1% to 2%.

In the 1940's a process for producing highly pure crystalline silicon called the Czochralski process was developed. In 1954 a crystalline silicon PV cell was produced by Scientists at Bell Laboratories using the Czochralski process, the cell had an effieciency rate of 4%.