Development of n-μc-SiOx:H as cost effective back reflector and its application to thin film amorphous silicon solar cells

Development of a novel fluorinated n-nc-SiO:H material for solar cell application

“…In our previous work [11] authors have observed that, it is possible to increase the band gap upto 2.27 eV with a minimum obtained refractive index of 2.1 and further reduction in refractive index was not possible even after fine tuning of deposition parameters. So in the present work SiF 4 is added in order to reduce the refractive index further.…”

“…Recently we have reported development of n-mc-SiO:H material [11] by the PECVD technique (13.56 MHz) from a mixture of silane, carbon dioxide and hydrogen and applied it as back reflector to single junction a-Si solar cells having improved efficiency. The requirements of good BRL material is low refractive index along with high optical gap and high lateral electrical conductivity [6].…”

Nanomirror-Embedded Back Reflector Layer (BRL) for Advanced Light Management in Thin Silicon Solar Cells

“…Out of different ways, the optical absorption and carrier collection can be increased by improving the reflection characteristics of a back reflector layer (BRL, a layer between the metal back contact and the bottom n-layer in an a-Si:H solar cell). This allows the incident light to have multiple numbers of bounces through the active layers, leading to an increase in the optical absorption of the device. − …”

Novel application of MgF2as a back reflector in a-SiOx:H thin-film solar cells

“…5,6,[19][20][21] On the other hand, n-type nanocrystalline SiO x :H (n-nc-SiO x :H) materials with a low refractive index close to that of ZnO:Al have recently been utilized to improve the p-i-n cell structure with n-nc-Si:H from p/i/n-nc-Si:H/ZnO:Al/Ag to the simple p/i/n-nc-SiO x :H/Ag. [22][23][24] To reduce further the optical loss at the back contact, we suggest the application of MgF 2 with an index (n ³ 1.38) lower than that of ZnO:Al (n ³ 2.0) at the n-µc-SiO x :H/Ag back interface, which has not been studied in thin-film silicon solar cells. In a field of a-Si:H/c-Si heterojunction-type cells, recently, MgF 2 of 300-400 nm thickness has been used between the ITO and the Ag back contact by using a fine-mesh shadow mask since it is not electrically conductive.…”