Optics of thin-film silicon solar cells with efficient periodic light trapping textures

C. Haase; D. Knipp; H. Stiebig

doi:10.1117/12.732376

11 September 2007 Optics of thin-film silicon solar cells with efficient periodic light trapping textures

C. Haase, D. Knipp, H. Stiebig

Proceedings Volume 6645, Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices IV; 66450W (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.732376
Event: NanoScience + Engineering, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The principle of interaction of light waves incident on a surface with a subwavelength nanostructure is a key question in the development of solar cells. Efficient thin-film solar cells based on microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) or amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) with an absorber layer in the micrometer range require effective light trapping and an optimal incoupling of the entire sun spectrum. The established approach to achieve this is the application of randomly textured transparent conductive oxides (TCOs). Previous investigations of light trapping in thin-film devices have been conducted with often misleading far field measurements. Optical simulations based on the Finite Integration Technique (CST Microwave Studios) are a valuable approach to analyze the light propagation in thin-film devices and enable the study the subwavelength optics of nano-textured interfaces by solving the Maxwell equations rigorously in 3D. However, the question regarding the optimized lateral feature size, vertical height, resulting interface angle and shape of the texture is essential to reach high energy conversion efficiencies. Various texture designs are studied by numerical modeling. We present a 3D simulation analysis of thin-film silicon solar cell nano-optics that gives clear design criteria to reach high efficiencies.

Citation Download Citation

C. Haase, D. Knipp, and H. Stiebig "Optics of thin-film silicon solar cells with efficient periodic light trapping textures", Proc. SPIE 6645, Nanoengineering: Fabrication, Properties, Optics, and Devices IV, 66450W (11 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.732376

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