Abstract
Antimony doped tin oxide (ATO), as one kind of transparent conductive oxides (TCO), is applied as electrodes in thin film solar cells. On the basis of the traditional glass/TCO structure on top of amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells, graphene is introduced to form the glass/TCO/Graphene and the glass/Graphene/TCO layered structure, which is aimed at both enhancing the optical absorption of thin-film solar cells as an antireflection coating (ARC) and increasing the electrical conductivity as a TCO electrode. In this paper, SiO2/ATO/Graphene and SiO2/Graphene/ATO structure are selected for the optimal lighttrapping design by using differential evolution method. The effect of graphene is mainly investigated and the thickness of the layers of proposed structure is optimized to enhance the optical absorption of thin-film solar cells to the greatest degree. The theoretical calculation results clearly demonstrate that the proposed SiO2/ATO/Graphene layered structure is obviously superior to the SiO2/Graphene/ATO structure, and it can obtain a higher light-trapping enhancement in the whole visible and near-infrared wavelength range because of the graded refractive index distribution profile.
Highlights
Amorphous silicon (α-Si) thin-film solar cells have attracted significant interest in research fields because of the low cost, nontoxicity and mature processing technology [1, 2]
On the basis of the traditional glass/transparent conductive oxides (TCO) structure on top of amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells, graphene is introduced to form the glass/TCO/Graphene and the glass/Graphene/TCO layered structure, which is aimed at both enhancing the optical absorption of thin-film solar cells as an antireflection coating (ARC) and increasing the electrical conductivity as a TCO electrode [3]
The effect of graphene is mainly investigated and the thickness of the layers of proposed structure is optimized to enhance the optical absorption of thin-film solar cells to the greatest degree
Summary
Amorphous silicon (α-Si) thin-film solar cells have attracted significant interest in research fields because of the low cost, nontoxicity and mature processing technology [1, 2]. On the basis of the traditional glass/TCO structure on top of amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells, graphene is introduced to form the glass/TCO/Graphene and the glass/Graphene/TCO layered structure, which is aimed at both enhancing the optical absorption of thin-film solar cells as an antireflection coating (ARC) and increasing the electrical conductivity as a TCO electrode [3]. The effect of graphene is mainly investigated and the thickness of the layers of proposed structure is optimized to enhance the optical absorption of thin-film solar cells to the greatest degree. The theoretical calculation results clearly demonstrate that the proposed SiO2/ATO/Graphene layered structure is obviously superior to the SiO2/Graphene/ATO structure, and it can obtain a higher light-trapping enhancement in the whole visible and near-infrared wavelength range because of the graded refractive index distribution profile
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
