Effect of self-orderly textured back reflectors on light trapping in thin-film microcrystalline silicon solar cells

2009 ◽  
Vol 105 (9) ◽  
pp. 094511 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon ◽  
Back Reflectors

Light-trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells with a Combination of Periodic and Randomly Textured Back-reflectors

2012 ◽  
Vol 1426 ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sambit Pattnaik ◽  
Nayan Chakravarty ◽  
Rana Biswas ◽  
D. Slafer ◽  
Vikram Dalal
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Light Absorption ◽  
Nanoimprint Lithography ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Long Wavelength ◽  
Thin Film Silicon ◽  
Back Reflectors ◽  
Back Reflector

ABSTRACTLight trapping is essential to harvest long wavelength red and near-infrared photons in thin film silicon solar cells. Traditionally light trapping has been achieved with a randomly roughened Ag/ZnO back reflector, which scatters incoming light uniformly through all angles, and enhances currents and cell efficiencies over a flat back reflector. A new approach using periodically textured photonic-plasmonic arrays has been recently shown to be very promising for harvesting long wavelength photons, through diffraction of light and plasmonic light concentration. Here we investigate the combination of these two approaches of random scattering and plasmonic effects to increase cell performance even further. An array of periodic conical back reflectors was fabricated by nanoimprint lithography and coated with Ag. These back reflectors were systematically annealed to generate different amounts of random texture, at smaller spatial scales, superimposed on a larger scale periodic texture. nc-Si solar cells were grown on flat, periodic photonic-plasmonic substrates, and randomly roughened photonic-plasmonic substrates. There were large improvements (>20%) in the current and light absorption of the photonic-plasmonic substrates relative to flat. The additional random features introduced on the photonic-plasmonic substrates did not improve the current and light absorption further, over a large range of randomization features.

scholarly journals Comparison between periodic and stochastic parabolic light trapping structures for thin-film microcrystalline Silicon solar cells

2012 ◽  
Vol 20 (28) ◽  
pp. 29488 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Peters ◽  
C. Battaglia ◽  
K. Forberich ◽  
B. Bläsi ◽  
N. Sahraei ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Microcrystalline Silicon

Advanced Light Trapping in Thin-film Silicon Solar Cells

2010 ◽  
Vol 1245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miro Zeman ◽  
Olindo Isabella ◽  
Klaus Jaeger ◽  
Rudi Santbergen ◽  
Renrong Liang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Nano Particles ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Photon Management ◽  
Thin Film Silicon ◽  
Back Reflectors ◽  
Refractive Index Matching ◽  
Key Issues

AbstractPhoton management is one of the key issues for improving the performance of thin-film silicon solar cells. An important part of the photon management is light trapping that helps to confine photons inside the thin absorber layers. At present light trapping is accomplished by the employment of the refractive-index matching layers at the front side and the high-reflective layers at the back contact of the solar cells and scattering of light at randomly surface-textured interfaces. In this article key issues and potential of light management in thin-film silicon solar cells are addressed. Novel approaches for light trapping are presented such as i) surface textures based on periodic diffraction gratings and modulated surface morphologies for enhanced scattering and anti-reflection, ii) metal nano-particles introducing plasmonic scattering, and iii) one-dimensional photonic-crystal-like structures for back reflectors.

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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