Effect of the back surface topography on the efficiency in silicon solar cells

Aijuan, Guo; Famin, Ye; Lihui, Guo; Dong, Jinlong; Shi-meng, Feng

doi:10.1088/1674-4926/30/7/074003

Cited by 9 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 7 publications

(5 reference statements)

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“…[5][6][7] The metallic back-reflector of a solar cell can also be textured at transverse length scales greatly larger than a thousand nanometers, but planar backing appears to perform better. 8 In contrast, periodic texturing of the metallic back-reflector was indicated even in the early 1980s to help absorb light better, if the period were a few hundred nanometers. 9 Hence, the use of a metallic surface-relief grating as the back-reflector may result in higher efficiency.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of light absorption efficiency of amorphous-silicon thin-film tandem solar cell due to multiple surface-plasmon-polariton waves in the near-infrared spectral regime*

Faryad¹,

Lakhtakia

2013

Opt. Eng

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The reflectances of a thin-film solar cell were computed, using the rigorous coupled-wave approach, as functions of the angle of incidence and the free-space wavelength for illumination by linearly polarized plane waves. A tandem solar cell made of amorphous-silicon alloys was considered. The metallic back-reflector was taken to be periodically corrugated. Both the simple and the compound periodic corrugations of the metallic back-reflector (surface-relief gratings) were investigated. Lowreflectance bands in the reflectance spectrums were correlated with the solutions of the underlying canonical boundary-value problem to delineate the excitation of multiple surface-plasmon-polariton (SPP) waves. For the standard AM1.5 solar irradiance spectrum, we found that the light absorption efficiency in the near-infrared spectral regime can be increased up to 100% when multiple SPP waves of both linear polarization states are excited.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancement of light absorption efficiency of amorphous-silicon thin-film tandem solar cell due to multiple surface-plasmon-polariton waves in the near-infrared spectral regime*

Faryad¹,

Lakhtakia

2013

Opt. Eng

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“…The photogeneration in absorber layer can be increased using this BSF layer. A BSF layer can be deposited in back surface of solar cell using screen printed technology which is also an effective method to improve the efficiency of solar cell [22]. The simulation result shows that photogenerated current increases when a BSF layer deposited on rear side of the solar cell.…”

Section: Thickness Variation Of Back Surface Field (Bsf)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interface between c-Si and rear contact behave like a pn junction and an electric field forms at the interface which introduces a barrier to minority carrier flow to the rear surface. Thus a higher level of minority carrier concentration is maintained in bulk of the solar cell [22]. Al material has been chosen as the back contact of MJ solar cell for its some unique advantages over others high conductivity materials.…”

Section: Thickness Variation Of Back Surface Field (Bsf)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of Multijunction Solar Cell by Wafer Ray Tracer for Development of High Photogenerated Current

Ray¹

2015

IJRET

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Optical losses limit the excess carriers generation in absorber part of multijuction (MJ) solar cell. The generation of excess carriers is directly proportional to photogenerated current solar cell. Therefore, reduction of optical losses is fundamentally important for improving the power conversion efficiency. Thickness of layers strongly influences the performance of MJ solar cell. In this study we simulated a MJ solar cell of Air/ZnO/SiC/c-Si/a-Si(n)/Al structure using Wafer Ray Tracer (WRT) simulation software and optimized the thicknesses of the layers for photogenerated current. The simulation result shows that without SiC layer, only 57.48% of incident light is absorbed and generates 26.85 mA/cm2 photogenerated current in solar cell. A 70 nm thickness of optimized SiC layer is increasing the light absorption 22.16% and photogenerated current 38.54%. Result shows that there is no transmission of light through the absorber layer. The MJ solar cell without Back Surface Field (BSF) layer of a-Si(n) shows photogenerated current of 37.05 mA/cm2 which can be improved to 37.24 mA/cm2 with a 100 nm thickness of a-Si(n). The c-Si absorber layer shows highest absorptance within 500 nm-1000 nm wavelength of light spectrum with 100 nm thickness of a-Si(n). An a-Si(n) BSF layer at the back surface minimizes the effective back-surface recombination velocity and improves the collection probability of minority carriers of solar cell. Furthermore a 100 nm Al rear contact improves the photogenerated current of MJ solar cell to 37.25 mA/cm2. An Al rear contact layer improves the mechanical strength of c-Si absorber layer. The electrical property of Al improves the excess carriers' collection probability of MJ solar cell.

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“…The metallic back reflector of a solar cell can also be textured at transverse length scales greatly larger than a thousand nanometers, but planar backing appears to perform better [109]. In contrast, periodic texturing of the metallic back reflector was indicated in the early 1980s to help trap light better, if the period were a few hundred nanometers [110].…”

Section: Light-management Designsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making Solar Cells a Reality in Every Home: Opportunities and Challenges for Photovoltaic Device Design

Singh

Alapatt

Lakhtakia

2013

IEEE J. Electron Devices Soc.

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Globally, the cumulative installed photovoltaic (PV) capacity has topped the 100-gigawatt (GW) milestone and is expected to reach 200 GW by the year 2015. More than 90% of the installed PV capacity employs bulk-silicon solar cells. Engineering problems that include thermal and optical challenges have not permitted the large-scale commercialization of concentration PV systems, lack of functional reliabilityand the concomitant lack of economic bankability-being a major barrier. For increasing the efficiency of single-junction cells beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit, several approaches based on concepts such as multiple exciton generation, carrier multiplication, hot-carrier extraction, etc., have been proposed; however, these do not seem to be commercially viable. Since both bulk-silicon and thin-film (amorphous silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium gallium selenide) solar cells remain as the only two commercially viable options for terrestrial PV applications, a multi-terminal multi-junction architecture appears promising for inexpensive PV electricity generation with efficiency exceeding the currently feasible 25%. The architecture exploits the present commercial silicon solar cells along with abundant and ultralow-cost materials such as Cu 2 O. With the availability of wellcontrolled manufacturing processes at the sub 2-nm length scale, it will become possible to manufacture ultra-high efficiency and ultra-low cost PV electricity generation modules based on silicon.

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Effect of the back surface topography on the efficiency in silicon solar cells

Cited by 9 publications

References 7 publications

Enhancement of light absorption efficiency of amorphous-silicon thin-film tandem solar cell due to multiple surface-plasmon-polariton waves in the near-infrared spectral regime*

Enhancement of light absorption efficiency of amorphous-silicon thin-film tandem solar cell due to multiple surface-plasmon-polariton waves in the near-infrared spectral regime*

Optimization of Multijunction Solar Cell by Wafer Ray Tracer for Development of High Photogenerated Current

Making Solar Cells a Reality in Every Home: Opportunities and Challenges for Photovoltaic Device Design

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