Open AccessPlasmonic effects in amorphous silicon thin film solar cells with metal back contacts
Author(s) -
Ujwol Palanchoke,
Vladislav Jovanov,
H. Kurz,
P Obermeyer,
Helmut Stiebig,
Dietmar Knipp
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.20.006340
Subject(s) - materials science , plasmonic solar cell , amorphous silicon , silicon , plasmon , amorphous solid , optoelectronics , solar cell , thin film , quantum dot solar cell , polymer solar cell , optics , quantum efficiency , copper indium gallium selenide solar cells , reflection (computer programming) , crystalline silicon , nanotechnology , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , computer science , programming language
Plasmonic effects in amorphous silicon thin film solar cells with randomly textured metal back contact were investigated experimentally and numerically. The influence of different metal back contacts with and without ZnO interlayer was studied and losses in the individual layers of the solar cell were quantified. The amorphous silicon thin film solar cells were prepared on randomly textured substrates using large area production equipment and exhibit conversion efficiencies approaching 10%. The optical wave propagation within the solar cells was studied by Finite Difference Time Domain simulations. The quantum efficiency of solar cells with and without ZnO interlayer was simulated and the interplay between the reflection, quantum efficiency and absorption in the back contact will be discussed.