Enhancing silicon solar cell efficiency with double layer antireflection coating

Abstract

Antireflection coating on silicon, a high refractive index substrate, was theoretically investigated. The effects of antireflection coating on electrical parameters such as the short circuit current, open circuit voltage, maximum current density, maximum voltage, maximum power, power density, and conversion efficiency of the solar cell were simulated. Various previous works in which solar cell efficiencies were investigated after applying double layer antireflection coating (DLARC) were reviewed. Ti 2 O 3 and MgF 2 were then applied in a DLARC design, taking into consideration the refractive index dispersion of the two materials. The results were compared with other works in the solar spectral range (400-1200 nm). As a result of simulation, the reflectance on the surface was reduced from 30.2% to 2.37%. Moreover, about 22% conversion efficiency and 38.6 mA/ cm 2 short circuit current density were achieved for a silicon cell with DLARC. These results were compared with the parameters of a cell without coating, one with single layer coating, and one with zero reflectance on the front surface.

Effect of obliquity of incident light on the performance of silicon solar cells

“…Various methods are used to calculate the reflectivity of ARCs such as Fresnel formula, Rouard's method and transfer matrix method (TMM) [6, 10, 11]. But, transfer matrix method is the most commonly used as this relates the tangential components of electric and magnetic fields across the boundary of layers [11, 13].…”

Silicon nitride as antireflection coating to enhance the conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells

“…A set of optimized and well-designed ARCs on the front surface reduces the reflectivity on the front surface of the cell from 30% down to less than 2% [4,10]. Various methods are used to calculate the reflectivity of ARCs, such as the Fresnel formula, Rouard's method, and the transfer matrix method (TMM) [9,14,15]. The TMM is most commonly used as it relates the tangential components of electric and magnetic fields across the boundary of layers [15].…”

“…ARCs containing a single layer can be nonreflective only at a single wavelength, generally at the middle of the visible spectrum, whereas ARCs containing a double layer are effective over the whole visible spectrum [10]. Many works have been reported on ARCs with different materials such as MgF 2 /SiNx by Dhungel et al [11], SiO 2 /TiO 2 by Lien et al [12], Al 2 O 3 /TiO 2 by Bahrami et al [13], MgF 2 /Ti 2 O 3 by Medhat et al [14], and SiNx/SiNx by Beye et al [15].…”

“…Thus, ARCs are of great importance to improve the efficiency of solar cells by reducing the loss due to reflection [5][6][7][8][9]. ARCs containing a single layer can be nonreflective only at a single wavelength, generally at the middle of the visible spectrum, whereas ARCs containing a double layer are effective over the whole visible spectrum [10] [14], and SiNx/SiNx by Beye et al [15].…”

Selection of Materials for Double Layer Antireflection Coating of Silicon Solar Cell

“…There have been many reports on antireflection coatings in recent past. Effect of single and double-layer ARCs of different materials are investigated by R. Sharma et al [2], SiO 2 /TiO 2 by Lien et al [4], Al 2 O 3 /TiO 2 by Bahrami et al [5], MgF 2 /Ti 2 O 3 by M. Medhat et al [6]and Si 3 N 4 /Si 3 N 4 by R. Sharma [7].…”