Investigating the Potential of Nanoplasmonics for Efficiency Enhancement of Wafer Based Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract

Nanoplasmonics has gained significant research interest for photovoltaic applications due to their ability to construct optically thick but physically thin photovoltaic absorbers for high efficiency solar cells including thin (10-50 μm), ultrathin (≤10 μm) crystalline silicon solar cells, and amorphous silicon solar cells. In this paper, we investigate the potential of metal and dielectric nanoparticles on the efficiency enhancement of wafer based crystalline silicon solar cells having a physical thickness of 180 μm. We explore on whether the use of nanoplasmonics can boost the efficiency even further for state-of-the-art crystalline silicon solar cells. The effect of nanoplasmonics on the important performance metrics like reflectance, light trapping, and series resistance have been thoroughly studied for probable efficiency enhancement of wafer based cells. It is seen that the benefits offered by nanoplasmonics for efficiency enhancement of thin solar cells are limited for physically thick absorbers. A simple analytical model has been proposed and experiments carried out to validate the same.

Design and Validation of Multidimensional Hybrid Metamaterial Embedded Light Trapping Structure for p-Si/n-ZnO Based Thin c-Si Solar Cell

“…So, in this work mostly concentrated on 5 µm ZnO layer on 30 µm c-Si substrate. The diameter of 300 nm silica nanoparticle was chosen due to its optimum refractive index (1.27) lies between the refractive indexes offered by ZnO (1.5-2.5) and Air (1). Through the previous studies it was already established the light trapping capability of multilayer silica nanoparticles.…”

“…But the major disadvantage of this c-Si technology is due to its high raw material (silicon) cost. Though Shockley already mentioned more than fty years back regarding the optimum thickness of silicon, but industries are still using 180 µc thick absorber layer [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Now it is high time to promote thin c-Si wafers (20-30 µc substrate) to reduce the material cost of silicon solar cell to reduce the current market price of solar cell.…”

The Role of Graphene and Other 2D Materials in Solar Photovoltaics

“…Different light-trapping schemes along with extrinsic (bulk and surface) recombination mechanisms have been implemented in thin absorbers to achieve higher solar-cell efficiency. [69,71,72] With the need for emerging photovoltaic cells to be fabricated on bendable supports and capable of high-speed roll-to-roll (R2R) processing, silicon is gradually evolving toward a "flexible" future achieving a flexibility at a thickness below ≈50 µm. [73][74][75] Such flexible silicon substrates would result in a more efficient use of silicon but will need improvement in wafer manufacturing, sawing technologies, reduced kerf loss, new handling concepts, and modified encapsulation techniques.…”

“…Therefore, influence of silicon absorber thickness on the solar‐cell performance has been perhaps the most critical factor. Different light‐trapping schemes along with extrinsic (bulk and surface) recombination mechanisms have been implemented in thin absorbers to achieve higher solar‐cell efficiency . With the need for emerging photovoltaic cells to be fabricated on bendable supports and capable of high‐speed roll‐to‐roll (R2R) processing, silicon is gradually evolving toward a “flexible” future achieving a flexibility at a thickness below ≈50 µm .…”

Wide angle light collection with ultralow reflection and super scattering by silicon micro-nanostructures for thin crystalline silicon solar cell applications

“…Mono-crystalline silicon solar cells (∼180 μm thick) dominate the market, but silicon thickness constitutes a major portion of manufacturing costs (∼51% of the cell price) [1,2]. To achieve significant cost benefit is to reduce the thickness of the silicon wafer without compromising the efficiency as outlined in the International Technology Roadmap for Photovoltaic (ITRPV 2015) [1][2][3]. For single homo-junction mono-crystalline silicon solar cells, high efficiencies are achievable for wafer thickness of ∼40-50 μm [4], but this thickness is still difficult to handle due to the mechanical and processing constraints [5].…”