Optimization of thin film silicon solar cells on highly textured substrates

Despeisse, M.; Battaglia, Corsin; Boccard, Mathieu; Bugnon, G.; Charrière, Mathieu; Cuony, Peter; Hänni, Simon; Löfgren, Linus; Meillaud, Fanny; Parascandolo, Gaetano; Söderström, T.; Ballif, Christophe

doi:10.1002/pssa.201026745

Cited by 87 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The pH2 treatments were performed in a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) reactor, at 200°C, 0.5 mbar, for 20 minutes, with a power density of 12.3 W/cm 2 (200W). P-i-n solar devices were deposited by PECVD also in KAI large-area reactors [10]. A white dielectric polymer was used as back reflector.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced mobility of hydrogenated MO-LPCVD ZnO contacts for high performances thin film silicon solar cells

et al. 2012

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In this contribution, we study the increase in metalorganic-low pressure chemical vapor deposited (MO-LPCVD) ZnO thin films conductivity by hydrogen plasma post-treatment. We show that this improvement is linked to defect passivation at grain boundaries, decreasing the electron traps density and resulting in the almost complete suppression of the electron scattering at grain boundaries. For a 2 μm thick non-intentionally doped ZnO layer, electron mobility reaches after treatment values close to 60 cm 2

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enhanced mobility of hydrogenated MO-LPCVD ZnO contacts for high performances thin film silicon solar cells

et al. 2012

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“…We further seek to fabricate a bottom-limited device since such devices typically exhibit higher FF compared to top-limited devices because of the higher electronic quality of the mc-Si:H intrinsic material [39,40]. Therefore, we introduce an AIR that consists of a 1.1-mm-thick NID LP-CVD ZnO layer to enhance the top-cell J sc as previously reported by Söderström et al [29] and Bugnon et al [30] in the n-i-p and p-i-n configurations, respectively. We change the roughness of the AIR by applying a pure O 2 plasma treatment which increases the lateral resistivity of the layer without compromising the out-of-plane conductivity.…”

Section: Effect Of Air Roughness On Micromorph Cell Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…We deposited an absorber layer with a thickness of 1.7 mm using deposition processes which enable the improvement of the cell resilience to the substrate morphology [26,29]. The electrical performance of cells shown in Fig.…”

Section: Effect Of the Deposition Temperature Of The Ag Back Reflectormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This detrimental effect can be mitigated by tuning the deposition process parameters even at high deposition rates [26] and incorporating silicon oxide doped layers [27][28][29]. Another issue related to the use of patterned substrates is the self-texturing of the mc-Si:H film during PE-CVD, resulting in the formation of pinch points that form because of the change of the surface morphology of the silicon layer during its growth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New progress in the fabrication of n–i–p micromorph solar cells for opaque substrates

Biron

Hänni

Boccard

et al. 2013

Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells

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a b s t r a c tIn this paper, we investigate tandem amorphous/microcrystalline silicon solar cells with asymmetric intermediate reflectors grown in the n-i-p substrate configuration. We compare different types of substrates with respect to their light-trapping properties as well as their influence on the growth of single-junction microcrystalline cells. Our most promising back reflector combines a textured zinc oxide film grown by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition, a silver film for reflection, and a zinc oxide buffer layer. Grown on this substrate, microcrystalline cells exhibit excellent response in the infrared while keeping high open-circuit voltage and fill factor, leading to efficiencies of up to 10.0%. After optimizing the morphology of the asymmetric intermediate reflector, we achieve an n-i-p micromorph solar cell stabilized efficiency of 11.6%, using 270 nm and 1.7 mm of silicon for the absorber layer of the amorphous top cell and the microcrystalline bottom cell, respectively. Using this original device architecture, we reach efficiencies close to those of state-of-the-art n-i-p and p-i-n micromorph devices, demonstrating a promising route to deposit high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells on opaque substrates.

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“…2). Mixed-phase nc-SiO x layers have also proven to enable a more tolerant cell design [19], as their low in-plane conductivity limits the negative impact of porous regions (often called cracks marked by ellipses in Fig. 2) in the silicon absorber layer(s) occurring on rough substrates [20], while the high transverse conductivity of the aligned silicon filaments across the layer ensures efficient carrier extraction.…”

Section: Nanocrystalline Doped Silicon/silicon Oxide Layersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced nanostructured materials for pushing light trapping towards the Yablonovitch limit

Battaglia

Barraud

Billet

et al. 2011

Renewable Energy and the Environment

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Abstract:We give an overview on recent progress in the synthesis, fabrication and integration of advanced nanostructured materials for efficient light trapping in high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells. OCIS codes: (040.5350) PhotovoltaicTailoring the interaction between light and matter at the nanoscale has gained tremendous importance in the field of photovoltaics, as absorption of sunlight in solar cells can be enhanced drastically by proper engineering of advanced nanostructured materials. Here we give an overview over three novel approaches, recently developed in our lab, to bring light trapping in thin-film silicon solar cells one step closer to the Yablonovitch limit [1]. Nanomoulded transparent zinc oxidesZinc oxide (ZnO) is currently one of the key functional materials for advanced optoelectronic and photonic applications, due to its high transparency across the solar spectrum, excellent electrical properties, and the possibility to synthesize a rich variety of nanostructures. Its abundance and non-toxicity are important additional criteria in view of a global large-scale deployment of photovoltaics. Approaches that have already been successfully employed to increase light trapping in solar modules on millions of square metres [2] include the growth of ZnO films with randomly oriented pyramids by means of chemical vapour deposition [3][4] and wet etching of crater-like structures into sputtered ZnO films [5]. The pyramidal morphology in particular has demonstrated outstanding light-trapping capabilities and has led to several certified world-record conversion efficiencies [6][7]. Solution-based methods have also been extensively investigated for the synthesis of nanopillartype ZnO structures [8]. Although all these approaches provide a certain degree of freedom in designing the surface morphology of ZnO films, the basic feature morphology (pyramids, craters or pillars) is dictated by the underlying growth and etch kinetics. We recently reported the development of an elegant nanomoulding method [9], which completely frees ZnO films from morphological constraints imposed by nature, and allows one to transfer or replicate an arbitrary master structure made from an arbitrary (transparent or opaque) master material onto a transparent ZnO electrode (Fig. 1).

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Optimization of thin film silicon solar cells on highly textured substrates

Cited by 87 publications

References 18 publications

Enhanced mobility of hydrogenated MO-LPCVD ZnO contacts for high performances thin film silicon solar cells

Enhanced mobility of hydrogenated MO-LPCVD ZnO contacts for high performances thin film silicon solar cells

New progress in the fabrication of n–i–p micromorph solar cells for opaque substrates

Advanced nanostructured materials for pushing light trapping towards the Yablonovitch limit

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