Quasi-crystal photonic structures for fullband absorption enhancement in thin film silicon solar cells

Chen, Peizhuan; Niu, Pingjuan; Yu, Liyuan; Zhang, Jianjun; Fan, Qihua; Yang, Guanghua; Xiansong, Fu; Hou, Guofu

doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2017.10.003

Cited by 6 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Thus, the strategy of considering the graded-index structure as an ARC could be of interest towards the enhancement of amorphous Si solar cells. In addition, provides simplicity in the design and fabrication as well compared to its counterparts in 2D and 3D PCs [51][52][53][54][55][56].…”

Section: Numerical Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Textured concave anti-reflecting coating and convex back reflector to enhance the absorbance of amorphous Si solar cells

et al. 2022

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This work provides efficient designs in each the anti-reflective coating (ARC) and back reflector for enhancing the absorption of amorphous silicon solar cells. ARC structures are designed from planar, concave, and textured concave surfaces. For the back reflector structures, we use the concepts of the photonic bandgap (PBG) structure and convex surface. The mainstay in designing the ARC is specifically depending on the presence of a gradual increase in the refractive index as the incident radiation travels from air to the cell to decrease the solar cell reflectivity. Thus, the arrangement of (SiO2/Si3N4/SiC) layers is considered in designing the proposed ARC. The theoretical formalism of this study is based on the finite element method and transfer matrix method as well. The numerical results demonstrate the cell absorption based on the different configurations of the ARC and the back reflecting mirror. The investigated results show that the solar cell absorption increases by 34.92 % at 520 nm by including the planar ARC. However, significant decrements are obtained with the increase of the angle of incidence for the planar ARC. Meanwhile, the concave and textured geometries provide a perfect solution towards the increase of cell absorption with the angle of incidence, especially at wavelengths smaller than 550 nm. For wavelengths greater than 550 nm, 3-unit cells with the convex geometry represent the optimum design of the back mirror to increase the cell absorption at these wavelengths. Finally, the textured concave ARC and convex back reflector through the amorphous Si solar cell present a good candidate for significant enhancements of the cell absorption and optical generation as well.

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Section: Numerical Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Textured concave anti-reflecting coating and convex back reflector to enhance the absorbance of amorphous Si solar cells

et al. 2022

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“…These results clearly demonstrate that diffuse reflectivity (or haze factor) of substrates is not always a good indicator of the light-trapping ability. It has long been discussed which light-trapping structure, random or periodic, results in better light-trapping in solar cells, and this question remains controversial until now [54][55][56][57][58][59]. For periodic structures, large periods provide more diffraction orders than the small ones according to the grating equation, which is favorable for the resonant absorption enhancement.…”

Section: Qcs Brs For A-sige:h Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photonic Structures for Light Trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells: Design and Experiment

et al. 2017

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Abstract:One of the foremost challenges in designing thin-film silicon solar cells (TFSC) is devising efficient light-trapping schemes due to the short optical path length imposed by the thin absorber thickness. The strategy relies on a combination of a high-performance back reflector and an optimized texture surface, which are commonly used to reflect and scatter light effectively within the absorption layer, respectively. In this paper, highly promising light-trapping structures based on a photonic crystal (PC) for TFSCs were investigated via simulation and experiment. Firstly, a highly-reflective one-dimensional photonic crystal (1D-PC) was designed and fabricated. Then, two types of 1D-PC-based back reflectors (BRs) were proposed: Flat 1D-PC with random-textured aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) or random-textured 1D-PC with AZO. These two newly-designed BRs demonstrated not only high reflectivity and sufficient conductivity, but also a strong light scattering property, which made them efficient candidates as the electrical contact and back reflector since the intrinsic losses due to the surface plasmon modes of the rough metal BRs can be avoided. Secondly, conical two-dimensional photonic crystal (2D-PC)-based BRs were investigated and optimized for amorphous a-SiGe:H solar cells. The maximal absorption value can be obtained with an aspect ratio of 1/2 and a period of 0.75 µm. To improve the full-spectral optical properties of solar cells, a periodically-modulated PC back reflector was proposed and experimentally demonstrated in the a-SiGe:H solar cell. This periodically-modulated PC back reflector, also called the quasi-crystal structure (QCS), consists of a large periodic conical PC and a randomly-textured Ag layer with a feature size of 500-1000 nm. The large periodic conical PC enables conformal growth of the layer, while the small feature size of Ag can further enhance the light scattering. In summary, a comprehensive study of the design, simulation and fabrication of 1D-PC-and 2D-PC-based back reflectors for TFSCs was carried out. Total absorption and device performance enhancement were achieved with the novel PC light-trapping systems because of their high reflectivity or high scattering property. Further research is necessary to illuminate the optimal structure design of PC-based back reflectors and high solar cell efficiency.

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Short-circuit current density and fill factor improvement by optimizing In2O3:H and metal back reflector layers for p-i-n a-SiGe:H thin film solar cells

Sun

Liu

Hwang

2019

J Mater Sci: Mater Electron

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Quasi-crystal photonic structures for fullband absorption enhancement in thin film silicon solar cells

Cited by 6 publications

References 41 publications

Textured concave anti-reflecting coating and convex back reflector to enhance the absorbance of amorphous Si solar cells

Textured concave anti-reflecting coating and convex back reflector to enhance the absorbance of amorphous Si solar cells

Photonic Structures for Light Trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells: Design and Experiment

Short-circuit current density and fill factor improvement by optimizing In2O3:H and metal back reflector layers for p-i-n a-SiGe:H thin film solar cells

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