Thin Film Si Photovoltaic Devices on Photonic Structures Fabricated on Steel and Polymer Substrates.

2011 ◽  
Vol 1321 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Pattnaik ◽  
N. Chakravarty ◽  
J. Bhattacharya ◽  
R. Biswas ◽  
D. Slafer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Matrix Theory ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Steel Structures ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Photovoltaic Devices ◽  
Photonic Structures ◽  
Amorphous Si ◽  
Steel Substrates ◽  
Nanocrystalline Si

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we report on the growth and fabrication of thin film Si photovoltaic devices on photonic structures which were fabricated on steel and PEN and Kapton substrates. Both amorphous Si and thin film nanocrystalline Si devices were fabricated. The 2 dimensional photonic reflector structures were designed using a scattering matrix theory and consisted of appropriately designed holes/pillars which were imprinted into a polymer layer coated onto PEN, Kapton and stainless steel substrates. The photonic structures were coated with a thin layer of Ag and ZnO. Both single junction and tandem junction (amorphous/amorphous and amorphous/nanocrystalline) cells were fabricated on the photonic layers. It was observed that the greatest increase in short circuit current and efficiency in these cells due to the use of photonic reflectors was in nanocrystalline Si cells, where an increase in current approaching 30% (compared to devices fabricated on flat substrates) was obtained for thin (∼ 1 micrometer thick i layers) films of nano Si deposited on steel structures. The photonic structures (which were nanoimprinted into a polymer) were shown to stand up to temperatures as large as 300 C, thereby making such structures practical when a steel (or glass) of kapton substrate is used. Detailed measurements and discussion of quantum efficiency and device performance for various photonic back reflector structures on steel, kapton and PEN substrates will be presented in the paper.

scholarly journals CdTe-Based Thin Film Solar Cells: Past, Present and Future

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1684
Author(s):  
Alessandro Romeo ◽  
Elisa Artegiani
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Short Circuit Current Density ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Solar Cell Efficiency ◽  
Cell Efficiency

CdTe is a very robust and chemically stable material and for this reason its related solar cell thin film photovoltaic technology is now the only thin film technology in the first 10 top producers in the world. CdTe has an optimum band gap for the Schockley-Queisser limit and could deliver very high efficiencies as single junction device of more than 32%, with an open circuit voltage of 1 V and a short circuit current density exceeding 30 mA/cm2. CdTe solar cells were introduced at the beginning of the 70s and they have been studied and implemented particularly in the last 30 years. The strong improvement in efficiency in the last 5 years was obtained by a new redesign of the CdTe solar cell device reaching a single solar cell efficiency of 22.1% and a module efficiency of 19%. In this paper we describe the fabrication process following the history of the solar cell as it was developed in the early years up to the latest development and changes. Moreover the paper also presents future possible alternative absorbers and discusses the only apparently controversial environmental impacts of this fantastic technology.

scholarly journals Improved Metal Oxide Electrode for CIGS Solar Cells: The Application of an AgOX Wetting Layer

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Neugebohrn ◽  
Norbert Osterthun ◽  
Maximilian Götz-Köhler ◽  
Kai Gehrke ◽  
Carsten Agert
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Metal Oxide ◽  
Metal Layer ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Thin Film Solar Cells ◽  
Wetting Layer ◽  
Transparent Conductive Oxides ◽  
Effective Measure

AbstractOxide/metal/oxide (OMO) layer stacks are used to replace transparent conductive oxides as front contact of thin-film solar cells. These multilayer structures not only reduce the overall thickness of the contact, but can be used for colouring of the cells utilizing interference effects. However, sheet resistance and parasitic absorption, both of which depend heavily on the metal layer, should be further reduced to reach higher efficiencies in the solar cells. In this publication, AgOX wetting layers were applied to OMO electrodes to improve the performance of Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) thin-film solar cells. We show that an AgOX wetting layer is an effective measure to increase transmission and conductivity of the multilayer electrode. With the presented approach, we were able to improve the short-circuit current density by 18% from 28.8 to 33.9 mA/cm2 with a metal (Ag) film thickness as low as 6 nm. Our results highlight that OMO electrodes can be an effective replacement for conventional transparent conductive oxides like aluminium-doped zinc oxide on thin-film solar cells.

scholarly journals Optimized Thin-Film Organic Solar Cell with Enhanced Efficiency

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13087
Author(s):  
Waqas Farooq ◽  
Muhammad Ali Musarat ◽  
Javed Iqbal ◽  
Syed Asfandyar Ali Kazmi ◽  
Adnan Daud Khan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Organic Solar Cell ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Short Circuit Current Density ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Bragg Reflector ◽  
Performance Parameters ◽  
Distributed Bragg Reflector

Modification of a cell’s architecture can enhance the performance parameters. This paper reports on the numerical modeling of a thin-film organic solar cell (OSC) featuring distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) pairs. The utilization of DBR pairs via the proposed method was found to be beneficial in terms of increasing the performance parameters. The extracted results showed that using DBR pairs helps capture the reflected light back into the active region by improving the photovoltaic parameters as compared to the structure without DBR pairs. Moreover, implementing three DBR pairs resulted in the best enhancement gain of 1.076% in power conversion efficiency. The measured results under a global AM of 1.5G were as follows: open circuit voltage (Voc) = 0.839 V; short circuit current density (Jsc) = 10.98 mA/cm2; fill factor (FF) = 78.39%; efficiency (η) = 11.02%. In addition, a thermal stability analysis of the proposed design was performed and we observed that high temperature resulted in a decrease in η from 11.02 to 10.70%. Our demonstrated design may provide a pathway for the practical application of OSCs.

Nanoimprint Photonic Crystal Film Enhanced Light-Trapping in a-Si Thin Film Solar Cells

2011 ◽  
Vol 110-116 ◽  
pp. 497-502
Author(s):  
Wei Ping Chu ◽  
Fuh Shyang Juang ◽  
Jian Shian Lin ◽  
Tien Chai Lin ◽  
Chen Wei Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Photonic Crystals ◽  
Current Density ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Short Circuit Current Density ◽  
Thin Film Solar Cells ◽  
Uv Lamp

We utilize photonic crystals to enhanced lighttrapping in a-Si:H thin film solar cells. The photonic crystals effectively increase Haze ratio of glass and decrease reflectance of a-Si:H solar cells. Therefore, increase the photon path length to obtain maximum absorption of the absorber layer. The photonic crystals can effective in harvesting weakly absorbing photons with energies just above the band edge. We were spin coated UV glue on the glass, and then nanoimprint of photonic crystals pattern. Finally, used UV lamp was curing of UV glue on the glass. When the 45∘composite photonic crystals structures, the haze was increase to 87.9 %, resulting the short circuit current density and efficiency increasing to 13.96 mA/cm2 and 7.39 %, respectively. Because 45∘composite photonic crystals easy to focus on the point of light lead to the effect of scattering can’t achieve. So, we designs 90∘V-shaped photonic crystals structures to increase scattering. When the 90∘V-shaped photonic crystals structures, the Haze was increase to 93.9 %. Therefore, the short circuit current density and Efficiency increasing to 15.62 mA/cm2 and 8.09 %, respectively. We observed ~35 % enhancement of the short-circuit current density and ~31 % enhancement of the conversion efficiency.

Preparation of the Three Main Layers of CdS/CdTe Thin Film Solar Cells Using a Single Vacuum System

2011 ◽  
Vol 378-379 ◽  
pp. 601-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saleh N. Alamri ◽  
M. S. Benghanem ◽  
A. A. Joraid
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Short Circuit Current Density ◽  
Open Circuit ◽  
Fused Silica ◽  
Vacuum System ◽  
Cdte Thin Film

This study investigates the preparation of the three main layers of a CdS/CdTe thin film solar cell using a single vacuum system. A Close Space Sublimation System was constructed to deposit CdS, CdTe and CdCl2 solar cell layers. Two hot plates were used to heat the source and the substrate. Three fused silica melting dishes were used as containers for the sources. The properties of the deposited CdS and CdTe films were determined via Atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction and optical transmission spectroscopy. An J-V characterization of the fabricated CdS/CdTe solar cells was performed under solar radiation. The short-circuit current density, Jsc, the open-circuit voltage, Voc, fill factor, FF and conversion efficiency, η, were measured and yielded values of 27 mA/cm2, 0.619 V, 58% and 9.8%, respectively.

Analysis of short circuit current gains by an anti-reflective textured cover on silicon thin film solar cells

2012 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1672-1681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolin Ulbrich ◽  
Andreas Gerber ◽  
Ko Hermans ◽  
Andreas Lambertz ◽  
Uwe Rau
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Thin Film Solar Cells ◽  
Silicon Thin Film

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

2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 909-912 ◽  
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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