Light management and efficient carrier generation with a highly transparent window layer for a multijunction amorphous silicon solar cell

Abstract

P-layer of a p-i-n type amorphous silicon solar cell helps in creating a built-in electric field inside the cell; it also contributes to parasitic absorption loss of incident light. Here, we report optimization of these two characteristic contributions of the p-layer of the cell. We used a highly transparent p-type hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (p-a-Si 1−x C x :H ) window layer in an amorphous silicon solar cell. With the increased transparency of the p-type layer, the solar cell showed an improvement in short-circuit current density by 17%, along with improvement in blue response of its external quantum efficiency, although further thinner p-layer showed lower open-circuit voltage. Such a cell shows low light-induced degradation and a promise to be used in high-efficiency multijunction solar cell.