Evaluating the effectiveness of optical coupling techniques

Author

Wohlgemuth, J.H. ; Koval, T. ; Whitehouse, D. ; Creager, J.

Author_Institution

Solarex Corp., Frederick, MD, USA

Volume

2

fYear

1994

fDate

5-9 Dec 1994

Firstpage

1450

Abstract

It is important to maximize the amount of sunlight optically coupled into a solar cell. The usual approach to evaluate optical coupling is to fabricate solar cells and then to measure their performance under standard test conditions, using the short circuit current as the figure of merit. This approach suffers from several short comings, including spectral mismatch errors in the measurement and process induced variations in the performance. This paper presents an improved methodology for evaluating optical coupling, based on measuring the reflectance of sample surfaces as a function of wavelength. The effect of using this surface geometry on a particular cell can then be calculated using values of previously measured internal quantum efficiency for the cell technology selected. Data on a variety of surface texture treatments are presented

Keywords

optical couplers; optical variables measurement; reflectivity; solar cells; sunlight; surface texture; surface treatment; internal quantum efficiency; optical coupling; reflectance measurement; solar cell; spectral mismatch errors; standard test conditions; sunlight; surface geometry; surface texture treatments; Circuit testing; Coupling circuits; Current measurement; Measurement standards; Optical coupling; Optical surface waves; Photovoltaic cells; Short circuit currents; Surface treatment; Wavelength measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, 1994., Conference Record of the Twenty Fourth. IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference - 1994, 1994 IEEE First World Conference on

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1460-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/WCPEC.1994.520222

Filename

520222