Optimization of modulated surface texturing for flexible thin-film silicon solar cells

The use of clean energy sources for meeting the world’s energy requirements is increasing at an exponential rate, thus opening up new areas for research and development. The second generation of photovoltaics, especially flexible thin-film solar cells, are increasingly being used over the first generation crystalline silicon technologies due to...

Interdigitated back-contacted structure: A different approach towards high-efficiency ultrathin copper indium gallium (di)selenide solar cells

An interdigitated back-contacted (IBC) configuration is proposed for submicron copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS). In a modelling platform, the structure was opto-electrically optimized for maximum efficiency. The results are compared with a reference front/back-contacted (FBC) solar cell with similar absorber thickness and exhibiting...

Periodic-Random Modulated Surface Textures For Efficient Light Trapping in Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

Thin-film silicon solar cells make use of relatively thin layers of active material compared to wafer based solar cells. The main advantage of thin absorber layers is the possibility to fabricate flexible solar cells. However, due to limited absorber layer thickness and weak absorption coefficients at long wavelengths, light management...

Textured back reflectors for thin-film silicon solar cells

The low conversion efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells currently prevents them from competing, commercially, with the dominant crystalline silicon technology. The small thickness of the photo-active layer in thin-film silicon solar cells is an advantage for reducing raw material consumption and increasing industrial throughput, but...

Optical characterization of photovoltaic materials and structures for thin-film solar cells based on advanced texturization

Advanced texturization is a promising approach to increase the performance of thin-film solar cells. Currently, light trapping schemes implemented in state-of-the-art devices utilize randomly textured interfaces to increase their optical performance. Periodic gratings, however, have the potential to outperform their random counterparts and are...

Light management in thin-film silicon solar cells

Solar energy can fulfil mankind’s energy needs and secure a more balanced distribution of primary sources of energy. Wafer-based and thin-film silicon solar cells dominate todays’ photovoltaic market because silicon is a non-toxic and abundant material and high conversion efficiencies are achieved with silicon-based solar cells. To stay...

Optical modeling of thin-film silicon solar cells with submicron periodic gratings and nonconformal layers

In thin-film silicon solar cells (TFSC) efficient light management is essential in order to increase energy conversion efficiency. The application of nano-scale periodic gratings (PG) is a promising method to enhance absorption in the absorber layers of TFSC since they can efficiently scatter the incident light. Carefully designed gratings give...

Light management using rough interfaces in thin-film silicon solar cells