Premium
Radial junction solar cells prepared on single crystalline silicon wafers by metal‐assisted etching
Author(s) -
Baytemir Gulsen,
Es Firat,
Alagoz Arif Sinan,
Turan Rasit
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
physica status solidi (rrl) – rapid research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.786
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1862-6270
pISSN - 1862-6254
DOI - 10.1002/pssr.201600444
Subject(s) - materials science , wafer , solar cell , passivation , optoelectronics , etching (microfabrication) , photolithography , crystalline silicon , plasmonic solar cell , silicon , energy conversion efficiency , quantum dot solar cell , hybrid solar cell , polymer solar cell , doping , solar cell efficiency , nanotechnology , layer (electronics)
Radial junction solar cells have been proposed as an alternative device geometry to conventional planar solar cells with its remarkable electrical and optical performance. In this geometry, densely packed nano/micropillars allow minority carrier collection in the radial direction and shorten carrier diffusion length to p–n junction. Besides, reduced reflection from surface and increased light trapping in nano/micropillars enhance solar cell efficiency. In this study, photolithography and metal‐assisted etching (MAE) techniques are used to form well‐ordered silicon micropillar arrays; standard doping, passivation, and metallization steps are followed to form radial junction solar cells. The effect of micropillar length on optical and electrical performance of the solar cells have been investigated. We observed that optical reflection from solar cells surface decreased with increasing micropillar length, hence solar cell short circuit current ( J sc ) and efficiency ( ɳ ) increased. Our best solar cell efficiency is 15.6% and this is one of the highest reported values obtained from the radial junction solar cells prepared by MAE technique.