Heteroepitaxial reflector for the fabrication of Si thin film photovoltaic devices

Abstract

Thin film crystalline Si diodes are a viable solution to the goal of fabricating economical photovoltaic (PV) cells. A functional, light trapping, thin film PV was fabricated with a heteroepitaxial (YSZ) reflecting layer which also served as a complaint layer for the growth of crystalline Si or SiGe active layers. X-ray analysis confirmed that the deposited semiconductor layers were crystalline. It was observed that the light trapping PV cell formed with the YSZ reflector layer increased the short circuit current under illumination by 22% over that fabricated without the YSZ reflector layer. It was further observed that the surface texture in the YSZ layer contributed to both the ability to grow crystalline semiconductor layers and to act as an effective light trapping structure