Subwavelength Periodic Structures Design and its Role in Photon Control of Thin Film Solar Cells

Abstract

A subtle modification of the device surface is able to reduce optical loss and to further achieve high photoelectric conversion efficiency for thin film solar cells. This work shows the manipulation properties of subwavelength periodic structures on incident light at air/glass surface. In order to explore the mechanisms of optical loss, the spectral response and energy distribution of light are investigated by using rigorous coupled wave analysis and finite difference time domain methods. Calculation results show that the diffraction scattering and gradient refraction index play a significant role for better photon harvesting. With an optimized design of [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]nm, [Formula: see text], and hemispherical shape structure, obvious improvement in transmittance, external quantum efficiency and photo-generated current is achieved. The photoelectric conversion efficiencies of amorphous silicon thin film cells with an absorbing layer thickness of 400[Formula: see text]nm is 8.04%, improved by 5.9% compared with the flat cell of equivalent size.