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Light Trapping effects in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Franz-Josef Haug ,
Thomas Söderström ,
Didier Dominé  and
Christophe Ballif
Franz-Josef Haug
Affiliation:
franz-josef.haug@epfl.ch, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Institute of Microengineering, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Thomas Söderström
Affiliation:
thomas.soderstrom@epfl.ch, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Institute of Microengineering, Neuchatel, Switzerland
Didier Dominé
Affiliation:
didier.domine@supsi.ch, SUPSI, Lugano, Switzerland
Christophe Ballif
Affiliation:
christophe.ballif@epfl.ch, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne, Institute of Microengineering, Neuchatel, Switzerland
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Abstract

We present advanced light trapping concepts for thin film silicon solar cells. When an amorphous and a microcrystalline absorber layers are combined into a micromorph tandem cell, light trapping becomes a challenge because it should combine the spectral region from 600 to 750 nm for the amorphous top cell and from 800 to 1100 for the microcrystalline bottom cell. Because light trapping is typically achieved by growing on textured substrates, the effect of interface textures on the material and electric properties has to be taken into account, and importantly, how the surface textures evolve with the thickness of the overgrowing layers. We present different scenarios for the n-i-p configuration on flexible polymer substrates and p-i-n cells on glass substrate, and we present our latest stabilized efficiencies of 9.8% and 11.1%, respectively.

Keywords

photovoltaicamorphousthin film
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1153: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin Film Silicon Science and Technology–2009 , 2009 , 1153-A13-01
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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