Controlling the flux of photons is crucial in many areas of science and technology. Artificial materials with nano-scale modulation of the refractive index, such as photonic crystals, are able to exercise such control and have opened exciting new possibilities for light manipulation. An interesting alternative to such periodic structures is the class of materials known as quasi-crystals, which offer unique advantages such as richer Fourier spectra. Here we introduce a novel approach for designing such richer Fourier spectra, by using a periodic structure that allows us to control its Fourier components almost at will. Our approach is based on binary gratings, which makes the structures easy to replicate and to tailor towards specific applications. As an example, we show how these structures can be employed to achieve highly efficient broad-band light trapping in thin films that approach the theoretical (Lambertian) limit, a problem of crucial importance for photovoltaics.

The “Epifree” process involves the lift‐off of a high‐quality monocrystalline film formed by reorganization upon annealing of cylindrical macropore arrays in silicon, and can thus provide high‐quality silicon films without resorting to costly epitaxy. The challenge of this new process lies in etching controlled and regular pores in silicon in a cost‐efficient way, and in developing a process compatible with the difficulty of handling a micron‐thin material. Proof‐of‐concept cells have previously been achieved and this paper presents the latest progress, with a first development of thicker films and the inclusion of rear‐side passivation. The energy‐conversion efficiency of 1‐µm‐thin Epifree cells was improved from 2.6 to 4.1% by depositing a stack of amorphous silicon (a‐Si) layers as rear‐side passivation. The increase in Voc was, however, limited and bound to a drop in Jsc. The choice of a‐Si was revealed to be unsuitable because of the thinness of the film and the presence of a full aluminum rear contact. The thinness of the film leads to a decrease in rear‐side reflectivity by the a‐Si absorption, and the aluminum, although not leading to crystallization, partly migrates inside the a‐Si stack upon anodic bonding as shown by TEM. These factors indicate that an alternative surface passivation should be developed. In parallel to process developments, the material was thickened by modifying the macropore array dimensions, leading to a 2.4‐µm‐thick material over 1 cm × 1 cm areas. The efficiency of the next cells is expected to increase with this thicker material. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A concept that could provide a thin monocrystalline-silicon absorber layer without resorting to the expensive step of epitaxy would be very appealing for reducing the cost of solar cells. The empty-space-in-silicon technique by which thin films of silicon can be formed by reorganization of regular arrays of cylindrical voids at high temperature may be such a concept if the high quality of the thin film could be ensured on centimeter-large areas. While previous works mainly investigated the influence of the porous array on the final structure, this work focuses on the practical aspects of the high-temperature step and its application to large areas. An insight into the defects that may form is given and the origin of these defects is discussed, providing recommendations on how to avoid them. Surface roughening, pitting, formation of holes, and silicon pillars could be attributed to the nonuniform reactions between Si, SiO2, and SiO. Hydrogen atmospheres are therefore preferred for reorganization of macroporous arrays. Argon atmospheres, however, may provide high-quality silicon thin films as well, possibly even more easily transferable, as long as annealing is performed in controlled, clean, and oxygen-free conditions. Our experiments on large areas also highlight the importance of kinetics, which had not been considered up to now and which will require further understanding to ensure a complete reorganization over any wafer area.

We report on the fabrication of two-dimensional periodic photonic nanostructures by nanoimprint lithography and dry etching, and their integration into a 1-μm-thin monocrystalline silicon solar cell. Thanks to the periodic nanopatterning, a better in-coupling and trapping of light is achieved, resulting in an absorption enhancement. The proposed light trapping mechanism can be explained as the superposition of a graded index effect and of the diffraction of light inside the photoactive layer. The absorption enhancement is translated into a 23% increase in short-circuit current, as compared to the benchmark cell, resulting in an increase in energy-conversion efficiency.

Crystalline Si (c-Si) technology is dominating the photovoltaics market. These modules are nonetheless still relatively expensive, in particular because of the costly silicon wafers, which require large thickness mostly to ease handling. Thin-film technologies, on the other hand, use much less active material, exhibit a much lower production cost per unit area, but achieve an efficiency still limited on module level, which increases the total system costs. A meet-in-the-middle is possible and is the object of this paper. The development of c-Si thin-foil modules is presented: first, the fabrication of the active material on a glass module and then the processing of the Si foils into solar cells, directly on module level. The activity of IMEC in this area is put into perspective with regard to worldwide research results. It appears that great opportunities are offered to this cell concept, although some challenges still need to be tackled before cost-effective and reliable industrial production can be launched.

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In this paper, we present the integration of an absorbing photonic crystal within a monocrystalline silicon thin film photovoltaic stack fabricated without epitaxy. Finite difference time domain optical simulations are performed in order to design one- and two-dimensional photonic crystals to assist crystalline silicon solar cells. The simulations show that the 1D and 2D patterned solar cell stacks would have an increased integrated absorption in the crystalline silicon layer would increase of respectively 38% and 50%, when compared to a similar but unpatterned stack, in the whole wavelength range between 300 nm and 1100 nm. In order to fabricate such patterned stacks, we developed an effective set of processes based on laser holographic lithography, reactive ion etching and inductively coupled plasma etching. Optical measurements performed on the patterned stacks highlight the significant absorption increase achieved in the whole wavelength range of interest, as expected by simulation. Moreover, we show that with this design, the angle of incidence has almost no influence on the absorption for angles as high as around 60°.

Patterning the front side of an ultrathin crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cell helps keeping the energy conversion efficiency high by compensating for the light absorption losses. A super-Gaussian mathematical expression was used in order to encompass a large variety of nanopattern shapes and to study their influence on the optical performance. We prove that the enhancement in the maximum achievable photo-current is due to both impedance matching condition at short wavelengths and to the wave nature of light at longer wavelengths. We show that the optimal mathematical shape and parameters of the pattern depend on the c-Si thickness. An optimal shape comes with a broad optimal parameter zone where experimental inaccuracies have much less influence on the efficiency. We prove that cylinders are not the best suited shape. To compare our model with a real slab, we fabricated a nanopatterned c-Si slab via Nano Imprint Lithography. I.