Patent ID: 8654807

Claim:
An electrical device, comprising: a charge carrier transport layer formed using a ternary, or greater, semiconducting compound having a stoichiometry of 1:1:1 and an element combination selected from the set of I-III-IV, II-II-IV, and I-I-VI; or having a stoichiometry of 3:1:2 and an element combination selected from the set of I-III-V; or having a stoichiometry of 2:1:1 and an element combination selected from the set of I-II-V; or one of the compounds selected from the group of NaZnAs, CaCuN, CaCuP, NaZnSb, CuZnP, NaZnP, and NaZnN, wherein the electrical device comprises a photovoltaic cell and the charge carrier transport layer comprises at least a radiation absorption layer of the photovoltaic cell, the charge carrier transport layer forming at least a p-side, or an n-side, or an intrinsic region of a p-n junction device or a p-i-n junction device, and wherein the photovoltaic cell comprises p-type and n-type semiconductor compound layers grown in a chamber over a substrate, and wherein the semiconductor compound is tuned by the selection of elements to have a band gap in the range of 0.8 eV to 2.37 eV.