Plasmonic effects in amorphous silicon thin film solar cells with metal back contacts

Palanchoke, Ujwol; Jovanov, Vladislav; Kurz, H.; Obermeyer, P; Stiebig, Helmut; Knipp, Dietmar

doi:10.1364/oe.20.006340

Cited by 56 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…For all three metals, the absorption pattern shows a strong blue shift when the refractive index of the embedding medium is reduced (going from a-Si:H to SiO x :H and finally to ZnO:Al). This is in agreement with the results presented by Palanchoke et al, 20 who observed that an additional ZnO interlayer between the silicon solar cell and the metal back contact causes a shift of the localised plasmon resonances to shorter wavelengths. The wavelength range that is relevant for light trapping in a-Si:H solar cells is indicated in Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

The role of oxide interlayers in back reflector configurations for amorphous silicon solar cells

Demontis

Sanna

Melskens

et al. 2013

Journal of Applied Physics

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Thin oxide interlayers are commonly added to the back reflector of thin-film silicon solar cells to increase their current. To gain more insight in the enhancement mechanism, we tested different back reflector designs consisting of aluminium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) and/or hydrogenated silicon oxide (SiO x :H) interlayers with different metals (silver, aluminium, and chromium) in standard p-i-n a-Si:H solar cells. We use a unique inverse modeling approach to show that in most back reflectors the internal metal reflectance is lower than expected theoretically. However, the metal reflectance is increased by the addition of an oxide interlayer. Our experiments demonstrate that SiO x :H forms an interesting alternative interlayer because unlike the more commonly used ZnO:Al it can be deposited by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition and it does not reduce the fill factor. The largest efficiency enhancement is obtained with a double interlayer of SiO x :H and ZnO:Al.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

The role of oxide interlayers in back reflector configurations for amorphous silicon solar cells

Demontis

Sanna

Melskens

et al. 2013

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…Likewise, we considered a pyramid which has a consistent opening edge of 120°. All through the examination, FDTD strategy in three dimensions (3D) was utilized to mimic the solar cell investigating the optical wave spread and compute the losses in the individual layers (Palanchoke et al 2012;Huang et al 2013;Tamang et al 2016c).…”

Section: Design and Optical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The time standard power loss can be figured utilizing the following equation (Palanchoke et al 2012):…”

Section: Solar Cell With Smooth Substratementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The optical path length of a material with a refractive record of n is enhanced by a component 4n 2 which has a huge impact making a high-efficiency solar cell (Ferry et al 2010;Escarre et al 2011). As a rule, the nanotextured surface is utilized to satisfy such prerequisites for making productive solar cells (Kim et al 2011;Palanchoke et al 2012;Jovanov et al 2013a;Wang et al 2017). Moreover, it is conceivable to accomplish higher charge transporter era in the optically thin absorber if reflectivity in the back contact is enhanced (Palanchoke et al 2013;Chen et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of back reflectors on photon absorption in thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells

et al. 2017

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In thin-film solar cells, the photocurrent conversion productivity can be distinctly boosted-up utilizing a proper back reflector. Herein, the impact of different smooth and textured back reflectors was explored and effectuated to study the optical phenomena with interface engineering strategies and characteristics of transparent contacts. A unique type of wet-chemically textured glasssubstrate 3D etching mask used in superstrate (p-i-n) amorphous silicon-based solar cell along with legitimated back reflector permits joining the standard light-trapping methodologies, which are utilized to upgrade the energy conversion efficiency (ECE). To investigate the optical and electrical properties of solar cell structure, the optical simulations in three-dimensional measurements (3D) were performed utilizing finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique. This design methodology allows to determine the power losses, quantum efficiencies, and short-circuit current densities of various layers in such solar cell. The short-circuit current densities for different reflectors were varied from 11.50 to 13.27 and 13.81 to 16.36 mA/cm 2 for the smooth and pyramidal textured solar cells, individually. Contrasted with the comparable flat reference cell, the short-circuit current density of textured solar cell was increased by around 24%, and most extreme outer quantum efficiencies rose from 79 to 86.5%. The photon absorption was fundamentally improved in the spectral region from 600 to 800 nm with no decrease of photocurrent shorter than 600-nm wavelength. Therefore, these optimized designs will help to build the effective plans next-generation amorphous silicon-based solar cells.

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“…Such texturing requires micron-size features that are inapplicable to novel, flexible thin-film solar cells whose active area is thinner than one micrometer. Introducing small-scale plasmonic structures at the back surface of the solar cell has also produced efficiency improvements, 2 but these structures may be difficult to introduce into flexible thin films manufactured on a large-area plastic substrate, especially if high temperatures are required during the process of depositing the plasmonic structures and/or the thin photovoltaic film whose efficiency requires enhancement.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Scattering of long wavelengths into thin silicon photovoltaic films by plasmonic silver nanoparticles

et al. 2014

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Nanoparticles and nanostructures with plasmonic resonances are currently being employed to enhance the efficiency of solar cells.1-3 Ag stripe arrays have been shown theoretically to enhance the short-circuit current of thin silicon layers. 4 Monolayers of Ag nanoparticles with diameter d < 300 nm have shown strong plasmonic resonances when coated in thin polymer layers with thicknesses < d. 5 We study experimentally the diffuse vs. specular scattering from monolayer arrays of Ag nanoparticles (spheres and prisms with diameters in the range 50 -300 nm) coated onto the front side of thin (100 nm < t < 500 nm) silicon films deposited on glass and flexible polymer substrates, the latter originating in a roll-to-roll manufacturing process. Ag nanoparticles are held in place and aggregation is prevented with a polymer overcoat. We observe interesting wavelength shifts between maxima in specular and diffuse scattering that depend on particle size and shape, indicating that the nanoparticles substantially modify the scattering into the thin silicon film.

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Plasmonic effects in amorphous silicon thin film solar cells with metal back contacts

Cited by 56 publications

References 18 publications

The role of oxide interlayers in back reflector configurations for amorphous silicon solar cells

The role of oxide interlayers in back reflector configurations for amorphous silicon solar cells

Effect of back reflectors on photon absorption in thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells

Scattering of long wavelengths into thin silicon photovoltaic films by plasmonic silver nanoparticles

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