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Back Cover: Texture‐etched ZnO as a versatile base for optical back reflectors with well‐designed surface morphologies for application in thin film solar cells (Phys. Status Solidi A 6/2012)
Author(s) -
Böttler W.,
Smirnov V.,
Hüpkes J.,
Finger F.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201290014
Subject(s) - materials science , optoelectronics , texture (cosmology) , etching (microfabrication) , layer (electronics) , solar cell , surface finish , optics , plasmonic solar cell , composite material , polymer solar cell , physics , artificial intelligence , computer science , image (mathematics)
The improvement of light trapping is of great importance in the development of high efficiency thin film silicon solar cells. Texture‐etched ZnO has been often used as front contact in solar cells, where the requirements for the transmission and resistance limit the optimization of the texture morphology. The work by Böttler et al. (pp. 1144–1149 ) demonstrates that in the case of solar cells where the ZnO layer is used as a back reflector, its morphology can be tuned over a wide range by controlling etching time and as‐deposited thickness of the ZnO layer. A statistical analysis of the ZnO surface morphology indicates that with optimized diameter, depth and opening angle of the craters on the surface one can improve light trapping and the conversion efficiency of solar cells.