Analysis of photo-current potentials and losses in thin film crystalline silicon solar cells

Frijnts, Tim; Kühnapfel, Sven; Ring, Sven; Gabriel, Onno; Calnan, Sonya; Haschke, Jan; Stannowski, Bernd; Rech, Bernd; Schlatmann, Rutger

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2015.07.041

Cited by 36 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Single junction thin film silicon solar cells on glass with conversion efficiencies of up to 12% can be achieved by melting the 5–20 μm thick silicon absorbers with a heat source such as a laser or an electron beam . The silicon converts into highly crystalline material which leads to solar cells with open circuit voltages of 618 mV for p‐type absorbers and 657 mV for n‐type absorbers .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interface passivation of liquid‐phase crystallized silicon on glass studied with high‐frequency capacitance–voltage measurements

Preissler

Töfflinger

Shutsko

et al. 2016

Physica Status Solidi (a)

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The passivation quality at the interface between dielectric interlayer (IL) stacks and liquid-phase crystallized silicon (LPC-Si) was investigated by means of high-frequency capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements. The developed device structure was based on a molybdenum layer sandwiched between the glass substrate and the IL/LPC-Si stack. C-V curves were discussed in terms of hysteresis formation and capacitance relaxation. We varied the nitrogen and hydrogen content in the a-SiO x N y :H layer adjacent to the LPC-Si and studied the effects on the defect state density at the IL/LPC-Si interface (D it ) as well as on the effective charge density in the IL (Q IL,eff ). Both parameters are crucial for the analysis of chemical and field-effect passivation. Furthermore, the effect of an additional hydrogen plasma treatment (HPT) on D it and Q IL,eff was investigated. A Gaussian-like defect distribution at around 0.1 eV above the mid gap energy is significantly reduced by the additional HPT. With additional HPT, the lowest D it and highest Q IL,eff at mid gap, i.e., D it ¼ (3.5 AE 0.7) Â 10 11 eV À1 cm À2 and Q IL,eff ¼ (1.6 AE 0.3) Â 10 12 cm À2, correspond to the passivation by an a-SiO x N y :H layer with a low nitrogen and high hydrogen content.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interface passivation of liquid‐phase crystallized silicon on glass studied with high‐frequency capacitance–voltage measurements

Preissler

Töfflinger

Shutsko

et al. 2016

Physica Status Solidi (a)

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“…On top, a 750 nm-periodic grating is nanoimprinted into a high-temperature stable, UV curable sol-gel resist that is based on silicon alcoxides either with pillar-like [nanostructure type (1) and (3)] or sinusoidal [nanostructure type (2)] features as shown in Fig. 1.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such silicon thin-film solar cells with 10 µm thin absorbers prepared by liquid-phase crystallization (LPC) already yield wafer-equivalent morphologies, open-circuit voltages up to 650 mV [1] and conversion efficiencies above 12% [2]. However, incomplete light absorption, particularly due to optical losses at the glass-silicon interface, has been identified as one major limiting factor.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Imprinted Nanostructures for Light Management in Crystalline Silicon Thin-Film Solar Cells on Glass

Eisenhauer

Köppel

Jäger

et al. 2016

Light, Energy and the Environment

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“…Thus, the silicon film is recrystallized from the melt solidifying into grains that are up to a few centimeters long. Recent progress in LPC enabled solar cell efficiencies up to 12.1 %, 3 open-circuit voltages above 650 mV and a silicon material quality comparable to multicrystalline silicon wafers. 4 Since these current record solar cells feature only basic light trapping and particularly a flat light in-coupling glass-silicon interface their short-current density is still limited below 30 mA/cm 2 so far.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sinusoidal nanotextures for light management in silicon thin-film solar cells

2016

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a Recent progresses in liquid phase crystallization enabled the fabrication of thin wafer quality crystalline silicon layers on low-cost glass substrates enabling conversion efficiencies up to 12.1%. Because of its indirect band gap, a thin silicon absorber layer demands for efficient measures for light management. However, the combination of high quality crystalline silicon and light trapping structures is still a critical issue. Here, we implement hexagonal 750 nm pitched sinusoidal and pillar shaped nanostructures at the sun-facing glass-silicon interface into 10 µm thin liquid phase crystallized silicon thinfilm solar cell devices on glass. Both structures are experimentally studied regarding their optical and optoelectronic properties. Reflection losses are reduced over the entire wavelength range outperforming state of the art anti-reflective planar layer systems. In case of the smooth sinusoidal nanostructures these optical achievements are accompanied by an excellent electronic material quality of the silicon absorber layer enabling open circuit voltages above 600 mV and solar cell device performances comparable to the planar reference device. For wavelengths smaller than 400 nm and higher than 700 nm optical achievements are translated into an enhanced quantum efficiency of the solar cell devices. Therefore, sinusoidal nanotextures are a well-balanced compromise between optical enhancement and maintained high electronic silicon material quality which opens a promising route for future optimizations in solar cell designs for silicon thin-film solar cells on glass.

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Analysis of photo-current potentials and losses in thin film crystalline silicon solar cells

Cited by 36 publications

References 26 publications

Interface passivation of liquid‐phase crystallized silicon on glass studied with high‐frequency capacitance–voltage measurements

Interface passivation of liquid‐phase crystallized silicon on glass studied with high‐frequency capacitance–voltage measurements

Imprinted Nanostructures for Light Management in Crystalline Silicon Thin-Film Solar Cells on Glass

Sinusoidal nanotextures for light management in silicon thin-film solar cells

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