Because of the Sun's movement across the sky, broadband and omnidirectional light harvesting is a major development in photovoltaic technology. This study reports the fabrication and characterization of flexible-textured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) film on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells, which is one of the simplest and cheapest peel-off processes for fabricating a three-dimensional structure. A cell containing a textured PDMS film enhanced the short-circuit current density from 22.12 to 23.93 mA/cm2 in a simulated one-sun scenario. The omnidirectional antireflection of CIGS solar cells containing various PDMS films is also investigated. This study uses an angle-resolved reflectance spectroscope to investigate the omnidirectional and broadband optical properties of the proposed PDMS film. This improvement in light harvesting is attributable to the scattering of the PDMS film and the gradual refractive index profile between the PDMS microstructures and air. The flexible-textured PDMS film is suitable for creating an antireflective coating for a diverse range of photovoltaic devices.
Broadband and omnidirectional light harvesting is important in photovoltaic technology because of its wide spectral range of radiation and the sun's movement. This study reports the fabrication and characterization of zinc oxide (ZnO) dandelions on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells. The fabrication of dandelions involves the combination of self-assembled polystyrene (PS) nanospheres and the hydrothermal method, which is one of the simplest and cheapest methods of fabricating a three-dimensional, closely packed periodic structure. This study also investigates the optimization on dimension of the PS nanospheres using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) method. This study uses an angle-resolved reflectance spectroscope and a homemade rotatable photo I-V measurement to investigate the omnidirectional and broadband antireflections of the proposed dandelion structure. Under a simulated one-sun condition and a light incident angle of up to 60°, cells with ZnO dandelions arrays enhanced the short-circuit current density by 31.87%. Consequently, ZnO dandelions are suitable for creating an omnidirectionally antireflective coating for photovoltaic devices.
To improve the omnidirectional light-harvesting in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), here we present a dandelion-like structure composed of ZnO hemispherical shells and nanorods. Uniformly distributed hemispherical shells effectively suppress the reflection over the broadband region at incident angles up to 60°, greatly improving the optical absorption of the DSSCs. In addition, modulating the length of the ZnO nanorods controls the omnidirectional characteristics of DSSCs. This phenomenon is attributed to the degree of periodicity of the ZnO dandelion-like structures. Cells with shorter rods exhibit a high degree of periodicity, thus the conversion efficiencies of the cells show specific angle-independent features. On the other hand, the cells with longer lengths reveal angle-dependent photovoltaic performance. Along with the simulation, the cells with dandelion-like ZnO structures can couple incident photons efficiently to achieve excellent broadband and omnidirectional light-harvesting performances experimentally, and the DSSCs enhanced the conversion efficiency by 48% at large incident angles. All these findings not only provide further insight into the light-trapping mechanism in these complex three-dimensional nanostructures but also offer efficient omnidirectional and broadband nanostructured photovoltaics for advanced applications.
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