Abstract
In order to enhance the efficiency of thin-film Si solar cell, two well-known Fibonacci and Thue–Morse sequences of 1D quasi-periodic structures have been considered to achieve a broadband (300–1100 nm) planar antireflection coating, in this article. As almost non-absorbing materials in the solar spectrum, TiO2 and SiO2 with optimized thicknesses are considered to eliminate the reflections in the front side of the solar cell. An optimized bilayer antireflection coating with thicknesses of 54.4 nm and 85.6 nm respectively for the TiO2 and SiO2 layers has been obtained. Considering material dispersion and solar power spectrum (AM1.5), maximum efficiency enhancements of 42.78%, 46.15%, and 50% have been achieved for the 3 µm thin-film Si solar cell using the FC(3,1) structure which correspond to the cells without any recombination, with bulk recombination, and with bulk and surface recombinations, respectively. The proposed quasi-periodic multilayer antireflection structures have been investigated and optimized using the TMM and FDTD methods. The electrical characteristic of the design is studied by the drift–diffusion method after extracting the electron–hole pair generation. Also, the stability of the performance of the proposed ARC against induced roughness in practice has been investigated and discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Chen, Y., Elshobaki, M., Gebhardt, R., Bergeson, S., Noack, M., Park, J.M., Hillier, A.C., Ho, K.M., Biswas, R., Chaudhar, S.: Reducing optical losses in organic solar cells using microlens arrays: theoretical and experimental investigation of microlens dimensions. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 17(5), 3723–3730 (2015)
Chowdhury, F.I., Islam, K.M., Alkis, S., Ortaç, B.: Enhanced light scattering with energy downshifting using 16 nm indium nitride nanoparticles for improved thin-film a-Si NIP solar cells. J. Electrochem. Soc. 66(40), 9–16 (2015)
Eades, W.D., Swanson, R.M.: Calculation of surface generation and recombination velocities at the Si SiO2 interface. Appl. Phys. 58(11), 4267–4276 (1985)
Gatz, S., Müller, J., Dullweber, T., Brendel, R.: Analysis and optimization of the bulk and rear recombination of screen-printed PERC solar cells. Energy Proc. 27, 95–102 (2012)
Jangjoy, A., Bahador, H., Heidarzadeh, H.: Design of an ultra-thin silicon solar cell using localized surface plasmonic effects of embedded paired nanoparticles. Opt. Commun. 450, 216–221 (2019)
Kern, W., Tracy, E.: Titanium dioxide antireflection coating for silicon solar cells by spray deposition. RCA Rev. 41, 133–180 (1980)
Khuram, A., Sohail, A.K., Mat Jafri, M.Z.: Effect of double layer (SiO2/TiO2) anti-reflective coating on silicon solar cells. Int. J. Electrochem. Sci. 9, 7865–7874 (2014)
Kim, J.B., Kim, P., Pégard, N.C., Oh, S.J., Kagan, C.R., Fleischer, J.W., Stone, H.A., Loo, Y.L.: Wrinkles and deep folds as photonic structures in photovoltaics. Nat. Photonics 6(5), 327–332 (2012)
Li, P., Xie, J., Cheng, J., Jiang, Y.N.: Study on weak-light photovoltaic characteristics of solar cell with a microgroove lens array on glass substrate. Opt. Express 23(7), A192–A203 (2015)
Lien, S.Y., Wuu, D.S., Yeh, W.C., Liu, J.C.: Tri-layer antireflection coatings (SiO2/SiO2-TiO2/TiO2) for silicon solar cells using a sol-gel technique. Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells 90(16), 2710–2719 (2006)
Liu, D., Gangishetty, M.K., Kelly, T.L.: Effect of CH3 NH3 PbI3 thickness on device efficiency in planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells. J. Mater. Chem. A 2(46), 19873–19881 (2014)
Löper, P., Stuckelberger, M., Niesen, B., Werner, J., Filipic, M., Moon, S.J., Yum, J.H., Topic, M., Wolf, S.D., Ballif, C.: Complex refractive index spectra of CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite thin films determined by spectroscopic ellipsometry and spectrophotometry. Phys. Chem. Lett. 6, 66–71 (2014)
Martinet, C., Paillard, V., Gagnaire, A., Joseph, J.: Deposition of SiO2 and TiO2 thin films by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition for antireflection coating. J. Non-Crystalline Solids 216, 77–82 (1997)
Nishioka, K., Sueto, T., Saito, N.: Formation of antireflection nanostructure for silicon solar cells using catalysis of single nano-sized silver particle. Appl. Surf. Sci. 255(23), 9504–9507 (2009)
Rostami, A., Noori, M., Matloub, S., Baghban, H.: Light extraction efficiency enhancement in organic light emitting diodes based on optimized multilayer structures. Optik-Int. J. Light Electron Opt. 124(18), 6977–6980 (2014)
Schneider, B.W., Lal, N.N., Baker-Finch, S., White, T.P.: Pyramidal surface textures for light trapping and antireflection in perovskite on-silicon tandem solar cells. Opt. Express 22(106), A1422–A1430 (2014)
Song, Y.M., Yu, J.S., Lee, Y.T.: Antireflective submicrometer gratings on thin-film silicon solar cells for light-absorption enhancement. Opt. Lett. 35(3), 276–278 (2010)
Vos, A.D.: The fill factor of a solar cell from a mathematical point of view. Solar Cells 8, 283–296 (1983)
Ye, L., Zhang, Y., Zhang, X., Hu, T., Ji, R., Ding, B., Jiang, B.: Sol–gel preparation of SiO2/TiO2/SiO2–TiO2 broadband antireflective coating for solar cell cover glass. Solar Energy Mater. Solar Cells 111, 160–164 (2013)
Yu, P., Chang, C.H., Chiu, C.H., Yang, C.S., Yu, J.C., Kuo, H.C., Hsu, S.H., Chang, Y.C.: Efficiency enhancement of GaAs photovoltaics employing antireflective indium tin oxide nanocolumns. Adv. Mater. 21(16), 1618–1621 (2009)
Zeng, L., Bermel, P., Yi, Y., Alamariu, B.A., Broderick, K.A., Liu, J., Hong, C., Duan, X., Joannopoulos, J., Kimerling, L.C.: Demonstration of enhanced absorption in thin film Si solar cells with textured photonic crystal back reflector. Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 221105 (2008)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Abbasiyan, A., Noori, M. & Baghban, H. Efficiency enhancement in Si solar cell using 1D quasi-periodic antireflection coating. Opt Quant Electron 51, 338 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-019-2056-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11082-019-2056-9