Open AccessSingle-material zinc sulfide bi-layer antireflection coatings for GaAs solar cells
Author(s) -
Jung Woo Leem,
Dong−Hwan Jun,
Jonggon Heo,
Won-Kyu Park,
JinHong Park,
Woo Jin Cho,
Do Eok Kim,
Jae Su Yu
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.21.00a821
Subject(s) - materials science , refractive index , zinc sulfide , solar cell , anti reflective coating , quantum efficiency , layer (electronics) , optoelectronics , optics , solar cell efficiency , coating , zinc , wavelength , energy conversion efficiency , composite material , physics , metallurgy
We demonstrated the efficiency improvement of GaAs single-junction (SJ) solar cells with the single-material zinc sulfide (ZnS) bi-layer based on the porous/dense film structure, which was fabricated by the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method, as an antireflection (AR) coating layer. The porous ZnS film with a low refractive index was formed at a high incident vapor flux angle of 80° in the GLAD. Each optimum thickness of ZnS bi-layer was determined by achieving the lowest solar weighted reflectance (SWR) using a rigorous coupled-wave analysis method in the wavelength region of 350-900 nm, extracting the thicknesses of 20 and 50 nm for dense and porous films, respectively. The ZnS bi-layer with a low SWR of ~5.8% considerably increased the short circuit current density (J(sc)) of the GaAs SJ solar cell to 25.57 mA/cm(2), which leads to a larger conversion efficiency (η) of 20.61% compared to the conventional one without AR layer (i.e., SWR~31%, J(sc) = 18.81 mA/cm(2), and η = 14.82%). Furthermore, after the encapsulation, its J(sc) and η values were slightly increased to 25.67 mA/cm(2) and 20.71%, respectively. For the fabricated solar cells, angle-dependent reflectance properties and external quantum efficiency were also studied.