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A novel silicon nanostructure with effective light trapping for polycrystalline silicon thin film solar cells by means of metal‐assisted wet chemical etching
Author(s) -
Xue Chaowei,
Rao Jing,
Varlamov Sergey
Publication year - 2013
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.201330204
Subject(s) - materials science , silicon , plasmonic solar cell , polycrystalline silicon , optoelectronics , porous silicon , thin film , nanocrystalline silicon , nanostructure , quantum dot solar cell , isotropic etching , solar cell , substrate (aquarium) , etching (microfabrication) , nanotechnology , crystalline silicon , monocrystalline silicon , layer (electronics) , amorphous silicon , oceanography , geology , thin film transistor
Effective light trapping is required for poly‐Si thin film solar cells to compensate for the moderate light absorption. Recent developments of light trapping in the poly‐Si cell technology focus on random light scattering in the absorber layer by three means: glass substrate texture, silicon film etch‐back texture, and plasmonic nanoparticles. Although silicon nanostructures like porous silicon, silicon nanowires, and silicon nanoholes demonstrate good optical properties, they are seldom considered for poly‐Si thin film solar cells due to generally poor electronic properties and difficulty of fabrication. In this paper, the first poly‐Si thin film solar cells with a novel silicon nanostructure are fabricated. The Si nanostructure is fabricated by means of metal‐assisted wet chemical etching. Silver nanoparticles created by thermal annealing of evaporated silver thin film are used as etching catalyst. Light absorption for both glass‐side and air‐side illumination are significantly improved. The short‐circuit current is enhanced by 21.0% as measured from the glass side and 53.5% from the air side. The open‐circuit voltage is improved by 22 mV. It is first demonstration of working poly‐Si thin film cells made of such material.