Abstract
Amorphous silicon/crystalline silicon (a-Si/c-Si) micromorph tandem cells, with best confirmed efficiency of 12.3%, have yet to fully approach their theoretical performance limits. In this work, we consider a strategy for improving the light trapping and charge collection of a-Si/c-Si micromorph tandem cells using random texturing with adjustable short-range correlations and long-range periodicity. In order to consider the full-spectrum absorption of a-Si and c-Si, a novel dispersion model known as a quadratic complex rational function (QCRF) is applied to photovoltaic materials (e.g., a-Si, c-Si and silver). It has the advantage of accurately modeling experimental semiconductor dielectric values over the entire relevant solar bandwidth from 300-1000 nm in a single simulation. This wide-band dispersion model is then used to model a silicon tandem cell stack (ITO/a-Si:H/c-Si:H/silver), as two parameters are varied: maximum texturing height h and correlation parameter f. Even without any other light trapping methods, our front texturing method demonstrates 12.37% stabilized cell efficiency and 12.79 mA/cm² in a 2 μm-thick active layer.
Highlights
Sunlight is one of the most promising renewable sources of energy
In order to consider the full-spectrum absorption of a-Si and c-Si, a novel dispersion model known as a quadratic complex rational function (QCRF) is applied to photovoltaic materials (e.g., a-Si, c-Si and silver)
It has the advantage of accurately modeling experimental semiconductor dielectric values over the entire relevant solar bandwidth from 300—1000 nm in a single simulation
Summary
Sunlight is one of the most promising renewable sources of energy. The amount of solar power incident on the Earth’s surface is 10,000 times greater than the commercial energy used by every human on the planet, even without assuming any improvements in the performance and cost of current solar cell technology [1]. It has been shown that the QCRF model can fit other photovoltaic materials including, but not limited to, c-Si, silver, and CdTe. In order to trap light optimally, we suggest a statistically correlated random surface texturing algorithm which can reproduce known structures such as perfectly Lambertian surfaces and flat surfaces in the proper limits, as well as yielding physically realistic structures at intermediate values. In order to trap light optimally, we suggest a statistically correlated random surface texturing algorithm which can reproduce known structures such as perfectly Lambertian surfaces and flat surfaces in the proper limits, as well as yielding physically realistic structures at intermediate values Combining this proposed texturing with accurate modeling of TFSC materials can be used to determine the optimum texturing of the front surface texturing of a tandem silicon. This requirement further suggests that careful simulation will be necessary for a successful design
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