DocumentCode :
37318
Title :
Light-Trapping Properties of a Diffractive Honeycomb Structure in Silicon
Author :
Thorstensen, J. ; Gjessing, Jo ; Marstein, E.S. ; Foss, S.E.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Solar Energy, Inst. for Energy Technol., Kjeller, Norway
Volume :
3
Issue :
2
fYear :
2013
fDate :
Apr-13
Firstpage :
709
Lastpage :
715
Abstract :
Thinner solar cells will reduce material costs, but require light trapping for efficient optical absorption. We have already reported development of a method for fabrication of diffractive structures on solar cells. In this paper, we create these structures on wafers with a thickness between 21 and 115 μm, and present measurements on the light-trapping properties of these structures. These properties are compared with those of random pyramid textures, isotropic textures, and a polished sample. We divide optical loss contributions into front-surface reflectance, escape light, and parasitic absorption in the rear reflector. We find that the light-trapping performance of our diffractive structure lies between that of the planar and the random pyramid-textured reference samples. Our processing method, however, causes virtually no thinning of the wafer, is independent of crystal orientation, and does not require seeding from, e.g., saw damage, making it well suited for application to thin silicon wafers.
Keywords :
absorption coefficients; crystal orientation; elemental semiconductors; honeycomb structures; infrared spectra; optical losses; silicon; visible spectra; Si; crystal orientation; diffractive honeycomb structure; diffractive structure fabrication; front-surface reflectance; light escaping; light-trapping properties; optical absorption; optical loss contributions; parasitic absorption; planar pyramid-textured reference samples; random pyramid-textured reference samples; size 21 mum to 115 mum; solar cells; thin silicon wafers; Absorption; Optical diffraction; Optical losses; Optical surface waves; Silicon; Surface texture; Surface treatment; Laser processing; light trapping; optical characterization; silicon solar cells;
fLanguage :
English
Journal_Title :
Photovoltaics, IEEE Journal of
Publisher :
ieee
ISSN :
2156-3381
Type :
jour
DOI :
10.1109/JPHOTOV.2013.2240563
Filename :
6425390
Link To Document :
بازگشت