Textured back-surface reflectors for thin-film solar cells

A textured interface between α‐Si:H and silver is modeled as a periodic corrugation by using the exact extinction theorem. Light is reflected from such a surface into grating modes, which may be either propagating or evanescent. Deeper textures place the reflected light preferentially into modes of higher‐order number. The higher‐order propagating modes are absorbed with increasing strength by the α‐Si:H. The evanescent modes have effective extinction coefficients that may be many orders of magnitude greater than the ‘‘bulk’’ value for α‐Si:H. Numerical results suggest the texture dimensions that would most increase the long‐wavelength solar cell efficiency. The surface‐plasmon polariton dispersion relation is calculated for the interface between α‐Si:H and silver. This is used to interpret published photoconductivity data for α‐Si:H backed by textured silver.

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