A Vertical PN Junction Utilizing the Impurity Photovoltaic Effect for the Enhancement of Ultra-thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

2013 ◽  
Vol 1536 ◽  
pp. 39-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Paez ◽  
E. Huante-Ceron ◽  
A. P. Knights
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Photovoltaic Effect ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Maximum Efficiency ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Thin Film Silicon ◽  
Pn Junction ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Ultra Thin Film

ABSTRACTWe report a preliminary study on the influence of indium doping on ultra-thin film silicon solar cells. The design of the cell reported here is such that it should elucidate the impact of the indium dopant, which is concentrated in the thin film. Indium, a deep level in silicon (0.157 eV above the valence band), acts as a p-type dopant and a sensitizer. Absorption through sub-bandgap transitions is expected based on the previously reported Impurity PhotoVoltaic (IPV) Effect [1]. It is proposed that the implementation of a novel vertical PN junction configuration together with the IPV effect enhances the efficiency of ultra-thin solar cells. The most efficient cell fabricated to date, in our research group, has a conversion efficiency of 4.3 % (active silicon thickness of 2.5 μm), a short-circuit current density of 14.9 mA/cm2 and an open-circuit voltage of 0.51 V under 1 sun illumination. The cell has not been optimized with any type of light trapping technique and 11.24 % of the cell surface is covered by the metal contacts. Numerical simulation indicates that for the geometry used, the maximum efficiency that may be expected is 9.8 % (compared to the 4.3 % measured).

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

2014 ◽  
Vol 92 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 920-923 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Disorder Improves Light Absorption in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells with Hybrid Light Trapping Structure

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanpeng Shi ◽  
Xiaodong Wang ◽  
Fuhua Yang
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Periodic Structures ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Random Effect ◽  
Large Field ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Trapping Effect ◽  
Thin Film Silicon ◽  
The Impact

We present a systematic simulation study on the impact of disorder in thin film silicon solar cells with hybrid light trapping structure. For the periodical structures introducing certain randomness in some parameters, the nanophotonic light trapping effect is demonstrated to be superior to their periodic counterparts. The nanophotonic light trapping effect can be associated with the increased modes induced by the structural disorders. Our study is a systematic proof that certain disorder is conceptually an advantage for nanophotonic light trapping concepts in thin film solar cells. The result is relevant to the large field of research on nanophotonic light trapping which currently investigates and prototypes a number of new concepts including disordered periodic and quasiperiodic textures. The random effect on the shape of the pattern (position, height, and radius) investigated in this paper could be a good approach to estimate the influence of experimental inaccuracies for periodic or quasi-periodic structures.

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.

scholarly journals Reflectance Improvement by Thermal Annealing of Sputtered Ag/ZnO Back Reflectors in a-Si:H Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

2011 ◽  
Vol 1321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Söderström ◽  
Franz-Josef Haug ◽  
Céline Pahud ◽  
Rémi Biron ◽  
Jordi Escarré ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Thermal Annealing ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Flexible Substrate ◽  
Short Circuit Current ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Polyethylene Naphthalate ◽  
Thin Film Silicon ◽  
Back Reflectors

ABSTRACTSilver can be used as the back contact and reflector in thin film silicon solar cells. When deposited on textured substrates, silver films often exhibit reduced reflectance due to absorption losses by the excitation of surface plasmon resonances. We show that thermal annealing of the silver back reflector increases its reflectance drastically. The process is performed at low temperature (150°C) to allow the use of plastic sheets such as polyethylene naphthalate and increases the efficiency of single junction amorphous solar cells dramatically. We present the best result obtained on a flexible substrate: a cell with 9.9% initial efficiency and 15.82 mA/cm2 in short circuit current is realized in n-i-p configuration.

scholarly journals Assessing the impact of front grid metallization pattern on the performance of silicon solar cells

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saba Siraj ◽  
Sofia Akbar Tahir ◽  
Adnan Ali
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Solar Cell ◽  
Contact Resistance ◽  
Silicon Solar Cell ◽  
Fill Factor ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Maximum Efficiency ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
The Impact

Abstract The aim of this research work was to assess the impact of front and rear grid metallization pattern on the performance of silicon solar cells. We have investigated the effect of front grid metallization design and geometry on the open-circuit voltage (Voc), short circuit current density (Jsc), fill factor (FF) and efficiency (ŋ) of silicon solar cells by using Griddler 2.5 simulation program. We used different number of metal fingers ranging from 80–120 having width of 60 µm and different number of busbars ranging from 1–5 busbars on the front and rear side of solar cells for optimization. We have also calculated the efficiency and fill factor at different values of front contact resistance ranging from (0.1–100) mohm-cm2, front and rare layer sheet resistances ranging from (60–110) ohm/sq and different edge gaps. We found that the maximum efficiency and fill factor was obtained with those parameters, when front and rare contact resistances were taken as same. We have designed an optimized silicon solar cell with 115 number of fingers, 4 busbars, front and rare contact resistance of 0.1 mohm-cm2 and front and rare layer sheet resistance of 60 ohm/sq. In this way we were able to successfully optimize the silicon solar cell having efficiency and fill factor of 19.49 % and 81.36 % respectively, for our best optimized silicon solar cell.

scholarly journals Optimizing Quantum Dot Solar Concentrators with Thin Film Solar Cells

2010 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 176-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.G.J.H.M. van Sark ◽  
Celso De Mello Donegá ◽  
Ruud E.I. Schropp
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Quantum Dots ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Cross Sections ◽  
Stokes Shift ◽  
Maximum Efficiency ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Process Conditions ◽  
Solar Concentrators ◽  
Thin Film Silicon

Quantum dots are proposed as luminescent species in luminescent solar concentrators in combination with thin film silicon solar cells. As both tuning absorption and emission properties of quantum dots is possible by adapting process conditions, as well as tuning the band gap of thin film silicon solar cells, an optimum combination is expected to exist for which the conversion efficiency of the whole device is maximum. As a first step we have employed ray-tracing modeling to determine the efficiency of a luminescent concentrator using several quantum dots and heteronanocrystals with varying Stokes’ shift and absorption cross sections. A maximum efficiency of 5.9% is found for so-called Type II heteronanocrystals.

Optimization of the texturization of ZnO:Al surface using HCl + HNO3 for application in thin film silicon solar cells

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 3210-3218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sukanta Bose ◽  
Arokiyadoss Rayarfrancis ◽  
P. Balaji Bhargav ◽  
Gufran Ahmad ◽  
Sumita Mukhopadhyay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Thin Film Silicon

Enhanced light trapping in thin-film silicon solar cells with concave quadratic bottom gratings

2018 ◽  
Vol 57 (19) ◽  
pp. 5348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Chen ◽  
Rui Wu ◽  
Hongmei Zheng ◽  
Yuanyuan Wang ◽  
Xiaopeng Yu
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Thin Film Silicon
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