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A light-trapping structure based on Bi2O3 nano-islands with highly crystallized sputtered silicon for thin-film solar cells

Qiang Hu, Jian Wang, Yong Zhao, and Dejie Li

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

Silicon films with light-trapping structures are fabricated based on Bi2O3 nano-islands, which are obtained by annealing Bi nano-islands in the air at 400°C. The topography exhibits the maximum altitude of over 600nm and the root-mean-square roughness of 150nm, with the lateral size of single island of about 1μm. Highly crystallized sputtered silicon, realized by Cu-induced crystallization, is used to be a light-absorbing layer. Reflectivity of the samples with different thickness of silicon has been studied to reveal the light-trapping efficiency. The average reflectivity under AM1.5 illumination spectrum is 12% when silicon is 480nm thick and the reflectivity for the long wavelength region between 800nm and 1100nm is less than 10% when the silicon is 1.2μm thick. This is a promising low-cost structure for crystallized silicon thin-film solar cells with high efficiency.

©2010 Optical Society of America

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Figures (7)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Schematic sketch of the cross section of the multilayer light-trapping structure based on Bi2O3 nano-islands. The concept of light trapping is illustrated by the arrows representing incoming and scattered sun light.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Scanning electron microscope (SEM) image of (a) Bi nano-islands, (b) oxidated to be Bi2O3 nano-island after annealing in the air for 10 minutes, (c) Bi2O3 nano-islands seen at the inclined angle of 30°, (d) the surface topography of 1.2μm thick Si based on the Bi2O3 nano-islands before and (e) after annealing at 530°C for 10 hours, (f) the Si topography after annealing seen at the inclined angle of 30°.

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 Atomic force microscopy (AFM) image (scan size: 5x5 μm) (a) of Bi2O3 nano-islands and (b) as a result of the transfer of that of the Bi2O3 islands.

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Relationship between the surface root-mean-roughness (Rms) and the silicon thickness.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Angular distribution of the reflected light from the Bi2O3 nano-islands film coated substrate at θi = 5° and λ = 632.8 nm.

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 (a) Raman spectrum of samples with different volume ratios of Si and Cu. The Si thickness is fixed at 1.2 μm, and the ratio is varied from 120:1 to 30:1. (b) Gauss fitting curves of the Raman spectra of the sample corresponding to the one with 20nm thick Cu. All samples are annealed at 530 °C for 10 hours in a N2 atmosphere.

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Fig. 7
Fig. 7 Reflectivity as a function of wavelength for different Si thickness, (a) 1.2μm thick Si with smooth topography and (b) 480nm, (c) 720nm, (d) 960nm, (e) 1200nm thick Si with textured topography based on Bi2O3 nano-islands, all the samples are annealed at 530 °C for 10 hours in a N2 atmosphere. (f) Average reflectivity of Si thickness corresponding to (b), (c), (d) and (e) under AM 1.5 illumination spectrum.

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Equations (2)

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c r y s t a l l i z a t i o n _ r a t i o = S p o l y − S i + S m c − S i S p o l y − S i + S m c − S i + S a − S i
R a = ∫ R ( λ ) S ( λ ) d λ ∫ S ( λ ) d λ
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