Surface and bulk light scattering in microcrystalline silicon for solar cells

We present here an overview of the light scattering influence on the absorption coefficient spectra α(E) measured by constant photocurrent method (CPM) and/or by photothermal deflection spectroscopy (PDS). We compare results of numerical simulation with the measured CPM and PDS spectra and verify our theory by polishing the as-grown nanotextured layers. We show that the experimentally observed apparent absorption coefficient can overestimate the true α(E) by a factor of 10.