Full‐wave optoelectrical modeling of optimized flattened light‐scattering substrate for high efficiency thin‐film silicon solar cells

The flattened light-scattering substrate (FLiSS) is formed by a combination of two materials with a high refractive index mismatch, and it has a flat surface. A specific realization of this concept is a flattened two-dimensional grating. When applied as a substrate for thin-film silicon solar cells in the nip configuration, it is capable to reflect light with a high fraction of diffused component. Furthermore, the FLiSS is an ideal substrate for growing high-quality microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H), used as bottom cell absorber layer in most of multijunction solar cell architectures. FLiSS is a three-dimensional structure; therefore, a full-wave analysis of the electromagnetic field is necessary for its optimal implementation. Using finite element method, different shapes, materials, and geometrical parameters were investigated to obtain an optimized FLiSS. The application of the optimized FLiSS in µc-Si:H single junction nip cell (1-µm-thick i-layer) resulted in a 27.4-mA/cm2 implied photocurrent density. The absorptance of µc-Si:H absorber exceeded the theoretical Yablonovitch limit for wavelengths larger than 750 nm. Double and triple junction nip solar cells on optimal FLiSS and with thin absorber layers were simulated. Results were in line with state-of-the-art optical performance typical of solar cells with rough interfaces. After the optical optimization, a study of electrical performance was carried out by simulating current–voltage characteristics of nip solar cells on optimized FLiSS. Potential conversion efficiencies of 11.6%, 14.2%, and 16.0% for single, double, and triple junction solar cells with flat interfaces, respectively, were achieved. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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