Formation of High Light Scattering Texture on Glass Substrates Using Spherical Silica Particles and Spin-on-Glass for Thin Film Si Solar Cells

Abstract

Thin film Si solar cells based on hydrogenated amorphous Si and hydrogenated microcrystalline Si have been considered to have a reduced manufacturing cost compared with crystal type Si solar cells due to their reduced use of Si materials. However, the conversion efficiency of thin film Si solar cells is much lower than that of crystal Si solar cells owing to their lower photo absorption in the near infrared region which can be attributed to their indirect-transition type absorption and thin Si layer thickness. In order to increase in the conversion efficiency of thin film Si solar cells, improvement in the optical path length in the near infrared region is necessary. In order to confine the light and thereby increase the optical path length within the solar cells, a textured morphology has been formed on a transparent