Surface Plasmon Enhanced Light Trapping in Metal/Silicon Nanobowl Arrays for Thin Film Photovoltaics

Enhancing the light absorption in thin film silicon solar cells with nanophotonic and plasmonic structures is important for the realization of high efficiency solar cells with significant cost reduction. In this work, we investigate periodic arrays of conformal metal/silicon nanobowl arrays (MSNBs) for light trapping applications in silicon solar cells. They exhibited excellent light-harvesting ability across a wide range of wavelengths up to infrared regimes. The optimized structure (MSNBsH) covered by SiO2 passivation layer and hemisphere Ag back reflection layer has a maximal short-circuit density (Jsc) 25.5 mA/cm2, which is about 88.8% higher than flat structure counterpart, and the light-conversion efficiency (η) is increased two times from 6.3% to 12.6%. The double-side textures offer a promising approach to high efficiency ultrathin silicon solar cells.

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Advanced Light Trapping of High-Efficiency Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics ◽

10.7567/jjap.51.10nb02 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 51 (10S) ◽

pp. 10NB02 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tomomi Meguro ◽

Andrea Feltrin ◽

Takashi Suezaki ◽

Mitsuru Ichikawa ◽

Takashi Kuchiyama ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Solar Cells ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Light Trapping ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Thin Film Silicon

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Improved light trapping effect for thin-film silicon solar cells fabricated on double-textured white glass substrate

Canadian Journal of Physics ◽

10.1139/cjp-2013-0621 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 92 (7/8) ◽

pp. 920-923 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Hidetoshi Wada ◽

Keiichi Nishikubo ◽

Porponth Sichanugrist ◽

Makoto Konagai

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Solar Cells ◽

Solar Cell ◽

Light Trapping ◽

Short Circuit ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Organic Chemical ◽

Trapping Effect ◽

Thin Film Silicon ◽

Vapor Deposition Technique

Light trapping effect using rough surface transparent conductive oxide (TCO) is one of the best ways to achieve high efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells. Several types of rough ZnO film fabricated by metal organic chemical vapor deposition technique onto the glass, which are etched by reactive ion etching, have been proposed so far as promising TCO substrates. In this paper, newly developed ZnO substrate with extremely high light scattering property comparing with typical pyramidal texture one was developed. By applying this newly developed ZnO substrate to the solar cell, higher short circuit current of about 2% has been achieved comparing with typical pyramidal texture one without sacrificing other parameters. This result showed that the newly developed substrate is suitable as a front TCO substrate for high performance thin-film silicon solar cell.

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Thermodynamic limits of nanophotonic light trapping in thin film silicon solar cells

Canadian Journal of Physics ◽

10.1139/cjp-2013-0613 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 92 (7/8) ◽

pp. 909-912 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Brian R. Maynard ◽

E.A. Schiff

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Solar Cells ◽

Light Trapping ◽

Short Circuit ◽

Short Circuit Current ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Thin Film Silicon ◽

Solar Tracking ◽

Current Densities ◽

Thermodynamic Limits

We have extended an earlier thermodynamic treatment of light-trapping in lattice-textured solar cells to higher absorptances. This treatment is used to calculate the quantum efficiency spectra and short-circuit current densities JSC for thin-film silicon solar cells with ideal lattice textures. An optimal triangular lattice period of 900 nm yields a calculated JSC that is 2 mA/cm2 larger than for ideal random textures in a 1000 nm thick cell. We compare the calculations to recent experiments with periodically textured cells. While the experimental cells give JSC values that are comparable to the best cells with conventional textures, they do not show the features associated with the prediction of higher JSC. We discuss the role of imperfections in the periodic texturing, and suggest that cells used with solar tracking may realize the predicted JSC improvement.

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High Efficiency Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.750-752.970 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 750-752 ◽

pp. 970-973

Author(s):

Chun Rong Xue ◽

Xia Yun Sun

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Solar Cells ◽

Amorphous Silicon ◽

Triple Junction ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Cell Efficiency ◽

High Efficiency Solar Cells ◽

Alternative Material ◽

Staebler Wronski Effect

High-efﬁciency solar cells based on amorphous silicon technology are designed. Multi-junction amorphous silicon solar cells are discussed, how these are made and how their performance can be understood and optimized. Although significant amount of work has been carried out in the last twenty-five years, the Staebler-Wronski effect has limited the development of a-Si:H solar cells. As an alternative material, nc-Si:H has attracted remarkable attention. Taking advantage of a lower degradation in nc-Si:H than a-Si:H and a-SiGe:H alloys, the light induced degradation in triple junction structures has been minimized by designing a bottom-cell-limited current mismatching, and obtained a stable active-area cell efficiency. All this has been investigated in this paper.

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Innovative Device Architecture for High Efficiency Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/opl.2012.889 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 1426 ◽

pp. 131-135

Author(s):

Mathieu Boccard ◽

Matthieu Despeisse ◽

Christophe Ballif

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Solar Cells ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Silicon Oxide ◽

Light Trapping ◽

Electrical Circuit ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Device Architecture ◽

Thin Film Silicon ◽

Photovoltaic Technologies

ABSTRACTThe challenge for all photovoltaic technologies is to maximize light absorption, convert photons with minimal losses to electrical charges and efficiently extract them towards the electrical circuit. For thin film silicon solar cells, a compromise must be found as light trapping is usually performed through textured interfaces, that are detrimental to the subsequent growth of dense and high quality silicon layers. We introduce here the concept of smoothening intermediate reflecting layers (IRL), enabling to combine high currents and good electrical quality in Micromorph devices in the superstrate configuration. After exposing the motivation for such structures, we validate the concept by showing a VOCenhancement when employing a polished silicon-oxide-based IRL. Shunting issues and additional reflection losses are pointed out with such technique, highlighting the need to develop alternative techniques for an efficient morphology adaptation before the microcrystalline silicon cell growth.

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Advanced Light Trapping of High-Efficiency Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

Japanese Journal of Applied Physics ◽

10.1143/jjap.51.10nb02 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 51 ◽

pp. 10NB02 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tomomi Meguro ◽

Andrea Feltrin ◽

Takashi Suezaki ◽

Mitsuru Ichikawa ◽

Takashi Kuchiyama ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Solar Cells ◽

High Efficiency ◽

Light Trapping ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Thin Film Silicon

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Optical developments for silicon thin film solar cells in the substrate configuration

MRS Proceedings ◽

10.1557/proc-1101-kk04-05 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 1101 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas Soderstrom ◽

Franz-Joseph Haug ◽

Xavier Niquille ◽

Oscar Cubero ◽

Stéphanie Perregaux ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Thin Film ◽

Solar Cells ◽

Series Resistance ◽

Light Trapping ◽

Short Circuit ◽

Short Circuit Current ◽

Silicon Solar Cells ◽

Back Contact ◽

Silicon Thin Film ◽

Optical Behavior

AbstractIn the nip or substrate configuration thin film silicon solar cells, the choice of front TCO contact is critical because there is a trade off between its transparency which influences the current in the solar cell and its conductivity which influences the series resistance. Here, we investigate the optical behavior of two different TCO front contacts, either a 70 nm thick, nominally flat ITO or a 2 μm thick rough LPCVD ZnO. The back contact consists of LP-CVD ZnO with random texture. First we investigate the influence of the rough and flat front TCOs in μc-Si:H and a-Si:H solar cells. With the back contact geometries used in this work, the antireflection properties of ITO are effective at providing as much light trapping as the rough LP-CVD ZnO. In the second part, we demonstrate that total of 25 to 26 mA/cm2is achievable in nip micromorph tandem cells and show short circuit current up to 11.7 mA/cm2 using an SIO based intermediate reflector.

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