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Combining randomly textured surfaces and photonic crystals for the photon management in thin film microcrystalline silicon solar cells

S. Wiesendanger, M. Zilk, T. Pertsch, C. Rockstuhl, and F. Lederer

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

Photon management aims at optimizing the solar cell efficiency by, e.g., incorporating supporting optical nanostructures for absorption enhancement. Their geometrical design, however, is usually a compromise since requirements in different spectral domains need to be accommodated. This issue can be mitigated if multiple optical nanostructures are integrated. Here, we present a photon management scheme that combines the benefits of a randomly textured surface and an opaline photonic crystal. Moreover, upon considering the device with an increasing complexity, we show that a structure that respects the mutual fabrication constraints has the best performance, i.e., a device where the photonic crystal is not perfect but to some extent amorphous as enforced by the presence of the texture.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

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Figures (5)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Two dimensional sketch of the considered geometry. Shown in red is the conformally textured μc-Si:H layer. On top of it spheres are dropped onto the surface. The spheres constitute air voids which are cut out of the Zno host (blue region). The long range order gradually converges from an amorphous arrangement to perfect periodicity. Normal incidence illumination is from below.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 (a) Absorptance spectrum of an unstructured layer for various thicknesses d. (b) Reflectance spectrum of a four layer inverted opal (red line) and bandstructure of an inverted opal (blue dotted lines).

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) Absorptance spectrum of a 1 μm thick μc-Si:H layer (blue line) and reflectance spectra for a 4-layer inverted ZnO opal for a sphere radius of 325 nm (red dashed line) and a radius of 140 nm (red solid line). Diffraction efficiencies in reflection at a wavelength of 639 nm [marked by the black dashed line in (a)] for a radius of 140 nm (b) and 325 nm (c).

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 (a) Absorptance spectra for different geometries. The layer thickness is 1 μm and the sphere radius is 325 nm. (b) Normalized short circuit current densities for the absorptance spectra form (a). Circles are values normalized by the flat μc-Si:H layer and crosses show the values normalized using a silver back contact.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Normalized short circuit current densities as a function of thickness. Normalization is done by the silver back contact geometry.

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Tables (1)

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Table 1 Short circuit current densities in the diffractive mode for a 1 μm thick μc-Si:H layer

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Equations (1)

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J SC = e 0 ∫ A ( λ ) Φ ( λ ) d λ ,
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