Open AccessImproved photovoltaic characteristics of amorphous Si thin‐film solar cells containing nanostructure silver conductors fabricated using a non‐vacuum process
Author(s) -
Kung ChungYuan,
Liu JunChin,
Chen YuHung,
Lin ChenCheng,
Lu HsinWei,
Liu YungTsung,
Lin ChaoCheng
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
micro and nano letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.25
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1750-0443
DOI - 10.1049/mnl.2014.0416
Subject(s) - materials science , optoelectronics , nanostructure , amorphous silicon , short circuit , amorphous solid , electrical conductor , nanowire , energy conversion efficiency , conductor , conductivity , silicon , current density , thin film , open circuit voltage , crystalline silicon , nanotechnology , voltage , composite material , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
A low‐cost, highly reflective, liquid organic nanostructure silver conductor with superior conductivity, using back contact reflectors in amorphous silicon (a‐Si) single‐junction superstrate configuration thin‐lm solar cells produced using a non‐vacuum screen printing process is proposed. The conductive paste is composed of Ag nanowires (Ag NWs) mixed with an Ag nanostructure (Ag NS) sheet. The paste is referred to as ‘Ag NWS’. A comparison of silver conductor samples with vacuum‐system‐sputtered silver samples indicated that the short‐circuit current density ( J sc ) and the open‐circuit voltage ( V oc ) of Ag NWS conductor cells exceeded 0.22 mA/cm 2 and 66 mV, respectively. The Ag NWS conductor with back contact reflectors in solar cells was analysed using external quantum efficiency measurements to effectively enhance light‐trapping ability in a long wavelength region (580–700 nm). The cells constructed using the optimised Ag NWS demonstrated an increase of approximately 6.1% in power conversion efficiency under AM 1.5 illumination. These results indicated that the Ag NWS conductor back contact reflector layer is a suitable candidate for high‐performance a‐Si thin‐film solar cells.