Comparative investigation on designs of light absorption enhancement of ultrathin crystalline silicon for photovoltaic applications

Yi Huang; Wei Wang; Wu Pan; Weizhong Chen; Zhen Wang; Xinyu Tan; Wensheng Yan

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.6.047001

12 November 2016 Comparative investigation on designs of light absorption enhancement of ultrathin crystalline silicon for photovoltaic applications

Yi Huang, Wei Wang, Wu Pan, Weizhong Chen, Zhen Wang, Xinyu Tan, Wensheng Yan

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Photonics for Energy, Vol. 6, Issue 4, 047001 (November 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.6.047001

Abstract

Ultrathin crystalline silicon wafers for photovoltaic applications have attracted intensive attention because of potential benefits in cost-effectiveness. Structural design with high light absorption is important for photovoltaics because planar ultrathin silicon is poor in absorption. We conduct a comparative investigation on designs of light absorption enhancement for 2-μm-thick ultrathin crystalline silicon, where the front texture is a nanopyramidal structure and the rear adopts several designs. Our calculation results show that both of the ultrathin silicon with front nanopyramids and rear silver nanoarrays and the ultrathin silicon with two-sided nanopyramids are promising for photovoltaic applications. For the latter design, the calculated photocurrent achieves the highest value of 35.1 mA/cm² when a perfect electric conductor layer is applied at the bottom. In contrast, the former design has a lower photocurrent value of 31.2 mA/cm². But, this design is of practical significance because the majority of experimental reports on ultrathin crystalline silicon solar cells are single-sided front-textured at present and the fabrication techniques of plasmonic Ag nanoarrays are matured. Compared with previous reports, the present work offers a multiple option of structural designs for ultrathin crystalline silicon to enhance the light absorption for photovoltaic applications.

Citation Download Citation

Yi Huang, Wei Wang, Wu Pan, Weizhong Chen, Zhen Wang, Xinyu Tan, and Wensheng Yan "Comparative investigation on designs of light absorption enhancement of ultrathin crystalline silicon for photovoltaic applications," Journal of Photonics for Energy 6(4), 047001 (12 November 2016). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.6.047001

Published: 12 November 2016

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available