Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-gtxcr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T15:01:54.339Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Excitation of guided-mode resonances in thin film silicon solar cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2011

F.-J. Haug ,
K. Söderström ,
A. Naqavi  and
C. Ballif
F.-J. Haug
Affiliation:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue A.-L. Breguet 2, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
K. Söderström
Affiliation:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue A.-L. Breguet 2, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
A. Naqavi
Affiliation:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue A.-L. Breguet 2, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
C. Ballif
Affiliation:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin Film Electronics Laboratory, Rue A.-L. Breguet 2, CH-2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Get access

Abstract

Thin film silicon solar cells are attractive for photovoltaics; however, the poor charge transport in this material requires that the devices are thinner than the absorption length. Adequate absorption can nevertheless be achieved by light scattering at textured interfaces because light can get trapped inside the absorber layer if it is scattered into angles above the critical angle of total internal reflection. This situation can be identified with the propagation of a guided mode in a waveguide where silicon plays the role of the high index guiding medium and the interface texture serves to couple the incident light to modes via grating coupling. We present an experimental realization of a solar cell structure on a line grating where the enhanced photocurrent can be clearly related to resonant excitation of waveguide modes.

Keywords

amorphousSiphotovoltaic
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1321: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology , 2011 , mrss11-1321-a17-12
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1. Carlson, D. E. and Wronski, C. R., “Amorphous Si Solar Cell” Applied Physics Letters 28(11), p. 671–673 (1976)Google Scholar
2. Deckman, H. W., Wronski, C. R., Witzke, H., and Yablonovitch, E., “Optically enhanced amorphous silicon solar cells” Applied Physics Letters 42(11), p. 968–970 (1983)10.1063/1.93817Google Scholar
3. Söderström, K., Escarré, J., Cubero, O., Haug, F.-J., Perregaux, S., and Ballif, C., “UV nano imprint lithography technique for the replication of back reflectors for n-i-p thin film silicon solar cells” Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications 19(2), p. 202–210 (2011)10.1002/pip.1003Google Scholar
4. Okamoto, H., Nitta, Y., Adachi, T., and Hamakawa, Y., “Glow discharge produced amorphous silicon solar cells” Surface Science 86, p. 486–491 (1979)10.1016/0039-6028(79)90425-4Google Scholar
5. Shakir, S. and Turner, A., “Method of poles for multilayer thin-film waveguides” Applied Physics A: Materials Science & Processing 29(3), p. 151–155 (1982)10.1007/BF00617772Google Scholar
6. Haug, F.-J., Söderström, K., Naqavi, A., and Ballif, C., “Resonances and absorption enhancement in thin film silicon solar cells” accepted for application in Journal of Applied Physics (2011)10.1063/1.3569689Google Scholar
7. Avrutsky, I., Svakhin, A., and Sychugov, V., “Interference phenomena in waveguides with two corrugated boundaries” Journal of Modern Optics 36(10), p. 1303–1320 (1989)10.1080/09500348914551351Google Scholar
8. Söderström, K., Haug, F., Escarré, J., Cubero, O., and Ballif, C., “Photocurrent increase in n-ip- thin film silicon solar cells by guided mode excitation via grating coupler” Applied Physics Letters 96, p. 213508 (2010)10.1063/1.3435481Google Scholar
9. Naqavi, A., Söderström, K., Haug, F. J., Paeder, V., Scharf, T., Herzig, H. P., and Ballif, C., “Understanding of photocurrent enhancement in real thin film solar cells: towards optimal one-dimensional gratings” Optics Express 19(1), p. 128–140 (2011)10.1364/OE.19.000128Google Scholar