Flexible Semiconductor Technologies with Nanoholes-Provided High Areal Coverages and Their Application in Plasmonic-Enhanced Thin Film Photovoltaics

Zhaozhao Wang,Jun Ni,Zhongqin Lin,Linfa Peng,Xiaolong He,Zeyu Lei,Xinmin Lai,Peiyun Yi

doi:10.1038/s41598-017-13655-y

Zhaozhao Wang, Jun Ni + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13655-y

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Abstract

Mechanical flexibility and advanced light management have gained great attentions in designing high performance, flexible thin film photovoltaics for the realization of building-integrated optoelectronic devices and portable energy sources. This study develops a soft thermal nanoimprint process for fabricating nanostructure decorated substrates integrated with amorphous silicon solar cells. Amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells have been constructed on nanoholes array textured polyimide (PI) substrates. It has been demonstrated that the nanostructures not only are beneficial to the mechanical flexibility improvement but also contribute to sunlight harvesting enhancement. The a-Si:H solar cells constructed on such nanopatterned substrates possess broadband-enhanced light absorption, high quantum efficiency and desirable power conversion efficiency (PCE) and still experience minimal PCE loss even bending around 180°. The PCE performance without antireflection coatings increases to 7.70% and it improves 40% compared with the planar devices. Although the advantages and feasibility of the schemes are demonstrated only in the application of a-Si:H solar cells, the ideas are able to extend to applications of other thin film photovoltaics and semiconductor devices.

Highlights

Resent research exploits ways to build inorganic photovoltaic (PV) systems on flexible substrates, which could integrate excellent optoelectronic performances with mechanical flexibility
In our work, hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells have been constructed on nanotextured polyimide (PI) films, on which the nanostructures are constructed by a soft thermal nanoimprinting method using inorganically cross-linked TiO2 sol-gels
Voc is slightly decreased owing to the texture induced defects on the patterned substrate, the overall power conversion efficiency (PCE) performance of NH device improves from 5.49% to 7.70% attributed to the enhanced optical absorption and increased photocurrent

Summary

Their Application in PlasmonicEnhanced Thin Film Photovoltaics

Zhaozhao Wang[1], Linfa Peng[1], Zhongqin Lin[1], Jun Ni 1,2, PeiyunYi1, Xinmin Lai[1], Xiaolong He3 & Zeyu Lei[3]. This study develops a soft thermal nanoimprint process for fabricating nanostructure decorated substrates integrated with amorphous silicon solar cells. Some concepts integrating inorganic materials with organic substrates are available for fabricating optoelectronic systems possessing a combinational effect of the mechanical robustness and superior light trapping[5,6]. In our work, hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells have been constructed on nanotextured polyimide (PI) films, on which the nanostructures are constructed by a soft thermal nanoimprinting method using inorganically cross-linked TiO2 sol-gels. The imprinted inorganic nanostructures, on which various thin film solar cells could be constructed, possess outstanding thermal and mechanical reliability compared to conventional organic resists. The outstanding mechanical and optoelectronic performances demonstrated by a-Si:H solar cells improve the chances for realistic use of such nanotextured plastic substrates. Each of the reported results corresponded to an average of measurements on three samples

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