scholarly journals Epitaxial Silicon Solar Cells

10.5772/22367 ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasiliki Perraki
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Epitaxial Silicon

Plasma Texturing and Porous Silicon Mirrors for Epitaxial Thin Film Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

2008 ◽  
Vol 1101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Izabela Jozefa Kuzma-Filipek ◽  
Filip Duerinckx ◽  
Kris Van Nieuwenhuysen ◽  
Guy Beaucarne ◽  
Jef Poortmans
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Porous Silicon ◽  
Crystalline Silicon ◽  
Internal Reflection ◽  
Electrochemical Anodization ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Textured Surface ◽  
Epitaxial Silicon ◽  
Substrate Interface

AbstractThin film silicon solar cells, consisting of an epitaxially grown active layer on a low quality highly doped silicon substrate, incorporate many attractive features usually associated with their sister cells based on bulk silicon. However, the efficiency of the current epitaxial semi-industrial screen printed cells is limited to 11-12% mainly due to optical shortcomings. This paper will give an overview of our work aimed at tackling the 2 most important problems: (i) Finding and implementing an adequate front surface texture and (ii) the simulation, fabrication and incorporation of an intermediate reflector.The former issue has been addressed by the development of plasma texturing based on halogen species. This method allows us to fulfil the sometimes contradictory requirements for the textured surface, i.e. a uniform and reduced reflection, a strong lambertian character to scatter the light and a limited removal of silicon. It will be shown that the scattering efficiency is dependent on both the wavelength of the impinging light and on the silicon removal during the texturing process.The second and main issue of this work is the limited absorption volume of the epitaxial layer. To resolve this drawback, an intermediate reflector is placed at the epi/substrate interface to enhance the path length of the low energy photons through the epi-layer. In practice, a multi-layer porous silicon stack is created by electrochemical anodization of the substrate. The reflection at the epi/reflector/substrate interface is a combination of several different effects including a Bragg mirror and Total Internal Reflection (TIR). Measurements of the external reflectance as well as extraction of the internal reflection parameters are used to clarify the issue. Advanced structures, including chirped porous silicon stacks, are introduced. Finally, the benefits of the reflector on the level of the epitaxial silicon solar cell are analysed. Efficiencies close to 14% are obtained for epitaxial cells incorporating an advanced porous Si reflector.

Gettering of transition metals by porous silicon in epitaxial silicon solar cells

2012 ◽  
Vol 209 (10) ◽  
pp. 1866-1871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hariharsudan Sivaramakrishnan Radhakrishnan ◽  
Chihak Ahn ◽  
Jan Van Hoeymissen ◽  
Frédéric Dross ◽  
Nick Cowern ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Porous Silicon ◽  
Transition Metals ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Epitaxial Silicon

Silver nanodiscs for light scattering in thin epitaxial silicon solar cells: influence of the disc radius

2012 ◽  
Vol 1391 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. El Daif ◽  
L. Tong ◽  
B. Figeys ◽  
S. Jain ◽  
V. D. Miljkovic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Front Surface ◽  
Antireflection Coating ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Silicon Substrates ◽  
Epitaxial Silicon ◽  
Loss Mechanism ◽  
Absorption Increase ◽  
Through Hole

ABSTRACTThe effect of silver nanoparticles showing localised plasmonic resonances on the efficiency of thin film silicon solar cells is studied. Silver (Ag) nanodiscs were deposited on the surface of silicon cells grown on highly doped silicon substrates, through hole-mask colloidal lithography, which is a low-cost and bottom-up technique. The cells have no back reflector in order to exclusively study the effect of the front surface on their properties. Cells with nanoparticles were compared with both bare silicon cells and cells with an antireflection coating. We optically observe a resonance showing an absorption increase controllable by the disc radius. We also see an increase in efficiency with respect to bare cells, but we see a decrease in efficiency with respect to cells with an antireflection coating due to losses at wavelengths below the plasmon resonance. As the material properties are not notably affected by the particles deposition, the loss mechanism is an important absorption in the nanoparticles. We confirm this by numerical simulations.

Effects of heat treatment on epitaxial silicon solar cells on metallurgical silicon substrates

Solar Cells ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.L. Chu ◽  
Shirley S. Chu ◽  
L.L. Kazmerski ◽  
Ray Whitney ◽  
C.L. Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Treatment ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Silicon Substrates ◽  
Epitaxial Silicon ◽  
Metallurgical Silicon

Large-area epitaxial silicon solar cells based on industrial screen-printing processes

2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 673-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
Filip Duerinckx ◽  
Kris Van Nieuwenhuysen ◽  
Hyonju Kim ◽  
Izabela Kuzma-Filipek ◽  
Harold Dekkers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Screen Printing ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Epitaxial Silicon ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Printing Processes
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