Optical modeling of thin-film silicon solar cells with submicron periodic gratings and nonconformal layers

Solntsev, S.; Zeman, M.

Optical modeling of thin-film silicon solar cells with submicron periodic gratings and nonconformal layers

Conference paper (2011)

Authors

S. Solntsev Photovoltaic Materials and Devices -

M. Zeman Photovoltaic Materials and Devices -

Research Group

Photovoltaic Materials and Devices () (TU Delft)

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Published Date

2011

Language

English

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Faculty

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science

Department

Electrical Sustainable Energy

Research Group

Photovoltaic Materials and Devices

Abstract

In thin-film silicon solar cells (TFSC) efficient light management is essential in order to increase energy conversion efficiency. The application of nano-scale periodic gratings (PG) is a promising method to enhance absorption in the absorber layers of TFSC since they can efficiently scatter the incident light. Carefully designed gratings give a possibility to increase the photocurrent over a wavelength range where silicon exhibits a weak absorption. Maxwell's equations solver was employed to carry out optical simulations of TFSC with PG. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements demonstrate that film deposition smoothens the morphology of PG. In the simulations we used the results of AFM measurements to define the morphology of interfaces between the layers of TFSC. An optimum smoothing of interface roughness was determined that resulted in maximum absorption in thin-film silicon solar cells.