Abstract
Due to their low thickness, thin-film solar cells usually suffer from poor light absorption. To improve this situation, light-management is necessary. Within the present work, in order to enhance light coupling, an ultra-short-pulse laser is used for texturing substrates. Here commercially available multi component soda lime glass substrates are patterned with a dot grid at ambient air pressure with 150 fs pulses, centered at a wavelength of 775 nm. The structures consist of small depressions with approximately \(3\, \upmu \hbox {m}\) diameter. Varying depths of around 300 nm could be well reproduced. Reducing the pitch (distance between structure-to-structure centers), from ten to approximately one times the crater diameter, influences the structure quality and increases the deformation of the surface in the vicinity of the depressions. Consequently, the diffuse light scattering is improved from 0 to 30% haze. Overall, the presented approach is quite simple. This single-step texturing technique which can be easily used on different substrates is applicable in a wide range of thin-film solar cells. It has the advantage that ultra-thin electrodes can be used as the front contact as well as the potential to be integrated into a PV production line. Thus, complicated layer stacks for absorption enhancement can be avoided.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. Shah, J. Meier, A. Buechel, U. Kroll, J. Steinhauser, F. Meillaud, H. Schade, D. Domine, Thin Solid Films 512, 292 (2006)
M.A. Green, K. Emery, Y. Hishikawa, W. Warta, E.D. Dunlop, Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl. 22, 701 (2014)
J. Muller, B. Rech, J. Springer, M. Vanecek, Sol. Energy 77, 917 (2004)
R.-E. Nowak, S. Geisendorfer, K. Chakanga, M. Juilfs, N. Reininghaus, M. Vehse, K. von Maydell, C. Agert, IEEE J. Photovolt. 5, 479 (2015)
K. Chakanga, O. Siepmann, O. Sergeev, S. Geisendorfer, K. von Maydell, C. Agert, J. Photon. Energy 4, 044598 (2014)
M. Boccard, C. Battaglia, S. Hanni, K. Soderstrom, J. Escarre, S. Nicolay, F. Meillaud, M. Despeisse, C. Ballif, Nano Lett. 12, 1344 (2012)
G. Jo, M. Choe, S. Lee, W. Park, Y.H. Kahng, T. Lee, Nanotechnology 23, 112001 (2012)
M. Zeman, O. Isabella, K. Jager, R. Santbergen, S. Solntsev, M. Topic, J. Krc, Energy Procedia 15, 189 (2012)
A. Hongsingthong, A. Aino, P. Sichanugrist, M. Konagai, H. Kuramochi, R. Akiike, H. Iigusa, K. Utsumi, T. Shibutami, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 51, 10NB09 (2012)
B.C. Stuart, M.D. Feit, S. Herman, A.M. Rubenchik, B.W. Shore, M.D. Perry, Phys. Rev. B 53, Nr 4 (1996)
M.D. Perry, B.C. Stuart, P.S. Banks, M.D. Feit, V. Yanovsky, A.M. Rubenchik, J. Appl. Phys. 85, Nr 9 (1999)
K. Vestentoft, J.A. Olesen, B.H. Christensen, P. Balling, Appl. Phys. A 80, 493–496 (2005)
L. Englert, M. Wollenhaupt, L. Haag, C. Sarpe-Tudoran, B. Rethfeld, T. Baumert, Appl. Phys. A 92, 749–753 (2008)
J. Hernandez-Rueda, N. Gotte, J. Siegel, M. Soccio, B. Zielinski, C. Sarpe, M. Wollenhaupt, T.A. Ezquerra, T. Baumert, J. Solis, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 7, 6613–6619 (2015)
S. Zoppel, H. Huber, G.A. Reider, Appl. Phys. A 89, 161–163 (2007)
S. Krause, P.T. Miclea, F. Steudel, S. Schweizer, G. Seifert, EPJ. Photovolt. 4, 40601 (2013)
S. Krause, P.-T. Miclea, G. Seifert, JLMN 10, 3 (2015)
B. Neuenschwander, B. Jaeggi, M. Schmida, G. Hennig, Phys. Procedia 56, 1047–1058 (2014)
U. Loeschner, J. Schille, A. Streek, T. Knebel, L. Hartwig, R. Hillmann, C. Endisch, J. Laser Appl. 27, S29303 (2015)
Q. Zhou, W. Yang, F. He, R. Stoian, R. Hui, G. Cheng, OSA 21(8), 9851–9861 (2013)
C.R. Phipps, Laser Ablation and its Applications (Springer, Berlin, 2007)
B.K. Nayak, M.C. Gupta, Appl. Phys. A 89, 663–666 (2007)
M. Shen, J.E. Carey, C.H. Crouch, M. Kandyla, H.A. Stone, E. Mazur, Nano Lett. 8(7), 2087–2091 (2008)
V.V. Iyengar, B.K. Nayak, M.C. Gupta, Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells 94, 2251–2257 (2010)
A.Y. Vorobyev, C. Guo, Appl. Surf. Sci. 257, 7291–7294 (2011)
X. Zhang, H. Liu, X. Huang, H. Jiang, J. Mater. Chem. C 3, 3336 (2015)
J. Lacombe, O. Sergeev, K. Chakanga, K. von Maydell, C. Agert, J. Appl. Phys. 110, 023102 (2011)
J. Rao, S. Varlamov, Energy Procedia 33, 129–136 (2013)
O. Isabella, S. Solntsev, D. Caratelli, M. Zeman, Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl. 21, 94–108 (2013)
J. Imgrunt: Bachelor thesis, Hochschule Emden/Leer (2015)
S. Martin: PhD Thesis, Freien Universität Berlin (2004)
L. Jiang, H.-L. Tsai, J. Appl. Phys. 104, 093101 (2008)
A. Ben-Yakar, R.L. Byer, J. Appl. Phys. 96, 5316 (2004)
A. Ben-Yakara, R.L. Byer, A. Harkin, J. Ashmore, H.A. Stone, M. Shen, E. Mazur, Appl. Phys. Lett. 83, 3030 (2003)
T. Rother, Scattering as a Boundary Value Problem (Springer, Berlin, 2009)
J. Krc, B. Lipovsek, M. Bokalic, A. Campa, T. Oyama, M. Kambe, T. Matsui, H. Sai, M. Kondo, M. Topic, Thin Solid Films 518, 3054–3058 (2010)
M. Boccard, C. Battaglia, S. Hanni, K. Soderstrom, J. Escarre, S. Nicolay, F. Meillaud, M. Despeisse, C. Ballif, Nano Lett. 12, 1344–1348 (2012)
S. Neubert, S. Ring, F. Welker, S. Gtzendrfer, F. Ruske, B. Stannowski, R. Schlatmann, B. Rech, Phys. Status Solidi RRL 8(1), 44–47 (2014)
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank V. Braun for the support with station assembly, V. Steenhoff for fruitful discussions and O. Sergeev for cell depositions. The authors would like also thank G. Kane for critical reading the manuscript. This work has been supported by the Research Committee of the University of Applied Sciences Emden/Leer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Imgrunt, J., Chakanga, K., von Maydell, K. et al. Femtosecond laser texturing of glass substrates for improved light in-coupling in thin-film photovoltaics. Appl. Phys. A 123, 776 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1381-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1381-8