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Enhanced broadband and omni-directional performance of polycrystalline Si solar cells by using discrete multilayer antireflection coatings

Seung Jae Oh, Sameer Chhajed, David J. Poxson, Jaehee Cho, E. Fred Schubert, Sung Ju Tark, Donghwan Kim, and Jong Kyu Kim

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

The performance enhancement of polycrystalline Si solar cells by using an optimized discrete multilayer anti-reflection (AR) coating with broadband and omni-directional characteristics is presented. Discrete multilayer AR coatings are optimized by a genetic algorithm, and experimentally demonstrated by refractive-index tunable SiO2 nano-helix arrays and co-sputtered (SiO2)x(TiO2)1-x thin film layers. The optimized multilayer AR coating shows a reduced total reflection, leading to the high incident-photon-to-electron conversion efficiency over a correspondingly wide range of wavelengths and incident angles, offering a very promising way to harvest more solar energy by virtually any type of solar cells for a longer time of a day.

©2012 Optical Society of America

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Figures (7)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Wavelength- and angle-dependent reflectance of (a) single-layer, (b) double-layer and (c) 4-layer AR coatings. The structure of each AR coating was optimized by the genetic algorithm to minimize average reflectance over 400 to 1100nm wavelength range and 0° to 80° incident angle range. (d) Averaged reflectance of discrete multilayer AR coatings as a function of the number of layers.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 (a) Measured refractive index of co-sputtered (SiO2)x(TiO2)1-x thin films as a function of relative RF plasma power applied to the TiO2 target. (b) Measured refractive index and calculated porosity of SiO2 thin films deposited by OAD as a function of deposition angle, θ.

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) Cross-section SEM image and refractive index profile of the 4-layer AR coating on Si substrate. (b) Designed and measured values of thickness and refractive index of each layer for the optimized 4-layer AR coating.

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 (a) Measured wavelength- and angle-dependent reflectance of the 4-layer AR coating. (b) The difference between the measured reflectance [Fig. 4(a)] and calculated reflectance [Fig. 1(c)].

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Measured reflectance of bare silicon, Si3N4, 4-layer AR coating measured at 550nm ((a) ~(c)) and 850nm ((d) ~(f)). Reflectance of each sample is plotted as a function of the difference between the angle of detector (AOD) and the angle of incidence (AOI)on a log scale with varying AOI – 7° ((a), (d)), 30° ((b), (e)), and 60° ((c), (f)).

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 (a) The total reflectance measured from bare and AR coated (Si3N4 and 4-layer AR coatings) polycrystalline Si solar cells as a function of wavelength. (b) Photograph of polycrystalline Si solar cell with the Si3N4(bluish color, left) and the 4-layer AR coatings(black color, right).

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Fig. 7
Fig. 7 (a) Measured IPCE of polycrystalline Si solar cells with the Si3N4 and the4-layer AR coatings at normal incidence as a function of wavelength, together with the total reflectance. (b) Measured short circuit current density of polycrystalline Si solar cells with the Si3N4 and the 4-layer AR coatings as a function of incident angle. The short circuit current density is calculated by integrating the IPCE values.

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Tables (2)

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Table 1 The thickness, material, and refractive index at λ = 550nm of each layer constituting 1-layer, 2-layer and 4-layer AR coatings optimized by the GA.

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Table 2 Designed and measured thickness and refractive index of the individual layers of the 4-layer AR coating. The first and second layer, and the third and fourth layer were deposited by co-sputtering and OAD, respectively. Deposition conditions of co-sputtering and OAD are chosen to acquire desired refractive index.

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Equations (2)

Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more.

R avg = 1 λ 2 − λ 1 1 θ 2 − θ 1 ∫ λ 1 λ 2 ∫ θ 1 θ 2 R TE (λ,θ)+ R TM (λ,θ) 2 ⋅cosθ d θdλ
J SC = ∫ qF(λ)QE(λ) dλ
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