Abstract
We present a comparative study on numerical models used to predict the absorption enhancement in thin-film solar cells due to the presence of structured back-reflectors exciting, at specific wavelengths, hybrid plasmonic-photonic resonances. To evaluate the effectiveness of the analyzed models, they have been applied in a case study: starting from a U-shaped textured glass thin-film, µc-Si:H solar cells have been successfully fabricated. The fabricated cells, with different intrinsic layer thicknesses, have been morphologically, optically and electrically characterized. The experimental results have been successively compared with the numerical predictions. We have found that, in contrast to basic models based on the underlying schematics of the cell, numerical models taking into account the real morphology of the fabricated device, are able to effectively predict the cells performances in terms of both optical absorption and short-circuit current values.
Highlights
Nanophotonics and plasmonics are spurring a wide variety of new research aimed at improving the performance of thin-film solar cells [1,2] limited by the finite size of the active region
In this work, we propose a comparative study of numerical models used to predict the absorption enhancement in thin-film solar cells with structured back reflectors fabricated with a top-down approach
We have conducted a comparative study on numerical models used to predict the absorption enhancement in thin-film c-Si:H solar cells due to the presence of metallic structured back contacts
Summary
Nanophotonics and plasmonics are spurring a wide variety of new research aimed at improving the performance of thin-film solar cells [1,2] limited by the finite size of the active region. Even if avoiding irrelevant details is a general rule in numerical modeling toward saving computational resources, to what extent the correct texturing model affects the numerical predictions of the performances of thin-film solar cells remains to be investigated It is worth investigating the influence of the morphological changes, occurring during cell growth, on the light trapping capability of backreflectors via photonic and plasmonic resonance excitations. Discrepancies in terms of the filling factor or thickness of the backreflector may result in a shift of the resonant wavelengths, with a consequent modification of the absorption spectrum, generating a disagreement between experimental measurements and numerical predictions Based on these considerations, in this work, we propose a comparative study of numerical models used to predict the absorption enhancement in thin-film solar cells with structured back reflectors fabricated with a top-down approach. The numerical results are compared with the experimental data to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model
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