s the total amount of energy produced through the burning of fossil fuels one thousand fold (Waiting for the sunrise, 1990, p. 95). Of all of the potential uses for solar energy, its conversion to electricity is the most promising, yet only one tenth of one percent of the electricity generated each year on a global basis is produced through the conversion of solar energy. Concerns related to environmental preservation and protection, together with concerns related to energy independence, are driving research into conversion technologies that will improve the cost effectiveness of the conversion of solar energy into electricity. The most rapid advances being made through this research are in the field of photovoltaic cells, which convert sun light into electricity.
A photovoltaic cell turns the streams of photons of which light is comprised into streams of electrons of which electricity is comprised (Zweibel and Hersch, 1984, p. 1). When photons strike a semiconducting material,
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