Characteristics of modified nanopyramid silicon solar cell

In this paper, a modified nanopyramid solar cell (SC) is introduced and numerically analyzed. The finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is used for computing the optical efficiency of the suggested design. The modified nanopyramid SC consists of an upper tapered nanopyramid part and lower nano-rectangular unit. The geometrical parameters of the proposed design are studied to maximize the optical absorption and hence the ultimate efficiency of the reported SC. The modified structure provides an optical ultimate efficiency and short circuit current density (Jsc) of 39.6 % and 32.4 mA/cm2 with improvement of 24.1% and 22.2 %, respectively over the conventional thin film (TF) nanopyramid SC. Further, the p-i-n axial junctions of the suggested SC exhibits open circuit voltage (Voc) of 0.57 volt, JSC of 28.42 mA/cm2 and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 13.3% which are better than 0.559 volt, 19.6 mA/cm2 and 8.95%, respectively of the conventional nanopyramid TF-SC. This enhancement is mainly attributed to the combination between higher order modes generated by lower rectangle unit with lower order modes supported by the upper tapered nanopyramid.

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