Patent ID: 7098058

Claim:
A method of making a photovoltaic device comprising: providing a substrate having a base electrode layer; depositing a semiconductor layer onto the substrate layer, with a bottom surface of the semiconductor layer being deposited onto the base electrode layer, and a top surface of the semiconductor layer containing a plurality of nonuniformities, wherein the nonuniformities comprise areas of aberrant electric potential deviating from the average electric potential of the remainder of the top surface of the semiconductor layer; applying a solution over the top surface of the semiconductor layer, wherein the solution is comprised of an electrolyte and at least one additional bonding material, and wherein the solution contains positive and negative ions; applying light energy to the semiconductor layer to enhance the deviation in the electric potential of the aberrant electric potential areas, thereby causing a redistribution of the positive and negative ions of the solution, and also causing the bonding material to bond to the top surface of the semiconductor layer, wherein the resultant bonding is selective bonding of the bonding material to the areas of aberrant electric potential in a manner such that the electric potential of the nonuniformities is normalized relative to the average electric potential of the remainder of the top surface of the semiconductor layer; and depositing a conductive electrode layer over the top surface of the semiconductor layer.