Effects of (i)a-Si: H deposition temperature on high-efficiency silicon heterojunction solar cells

Excellent surface passivation induced by (i)a-Si:H is critical to achieve high-efficiency silicon heterojunction (SHJ) solar cells. This is key for conventional single-junction cell applications but also for bottom cell application in tandem devices. In this study, we investigated the effects of (i)a-Si:H deposition temperature on passivation...

Modulated surface texturing of temporary Al foils substrates for high-efficiency thin-film, flexible solar cells

In this work we focus on texturing Al substrate in order to employ the modulated surface texturing approach for thin-film, flexible, micromorph solar cells. We deployed two different methods to induce micro-craters in Al foil, i) bare Al etching by KOH and ii) AZO sacrificial layer etched in KOH. After modelling the etching kinetics of KOH on...

Advanced light management techniques for two-terminal hybrid tandem solar cells

Multi-junction solar cells are considered for various applications, as they tackle various loss mechanisms for single junction solar cells. These losses include thermalization and non-absorption below the band gap. In this work, a tandem configuration comprising copper-indium-gallium-di-selenide (CIGS) and hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si...

Solar fuel production by using PV/PEC junctions based on earth-abundant materials

One of the main problems of renewable energies is storage of the energy carrier. For long-term storage, solar fuels seem to be a good option. Direct solar water splitting could play an important role in the production of these solar fuels. One of the main challenges of this process is the charge separation and collection at the interfaces. The...

Plasmonic nanoparticle films for solar cell applications fabricated by size-selective aerosol deposition

A soft deposition method for incorporating surface plasmon resonant metal nanoparticles within photovoltaic devices was studied. This self-assembly method provides excellent control over both nanoparticle size and surface coverage. Films of spherical Ag nanoparticles with diameter of ?100 nm were fabricated by depositing size-selected aerosols...

Improved light trapping in microcrystalline silicon solar cells by plasmonic back reflector with broad angular scattering and low parasitic absorption

We show experimentally that the photocurrent of thin-film hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (?c-Si:H) solar cells can be enhanced by 4.5?mA/cm2 with a plasmonic back reflector (BR). The light trapping performance is improved using plasmonic BR with broader angular scattering and lower parasitic absorption loss through tuning the size of...

The role of oxide interlayers in back reflector configurations for amorphous silicon solar cells

Thin oxide interlayers are commonly added to the back reflector of thin-film silicon solar cells to increase their current. To gain more insight in the enhancement mechanism, we tested different back reflector designs consisting of aluminium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al) and/or hydrogenated silicon oxide (SiOx:H) interlayers with different metals ...