How did Charles Fritts build one of the first true solar cells?

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Diagram of a solar cell showing labeled layers, including a front electrical contact grid, antireflection layer, absorber layer, back junction layer, and back electrical contact layer, with arrows indicating light entering and terminals connecting to a circuit. — solar cell A commonly used solar cell structure. In many such cells, the absorber layer and the back junction layer are both made of the same material.

In the 1880s, American inventor Charles Fritts constructed what are considered the first true solar cells.

He achieved this by creating a junction using the semiconductor selenium, which he coated with an ultrathin, nearly transparent layer of gold.1

While these devices were groundbreaking in their ability to convert light directly into electricity without heat or moving parts, they were highly inefficient by modern standards, converting less than 1 percent of absorbed light energy into electrical energy. Despite this low efficiency, Fritts's work was significant for fostering an early vision of utilizing the Sun as a source of abundant, clean power.12