Role of a disperse carbon interlayer on the performances of tandem a-Si solar cells

Araújo, Andreia; Barros, Rogério Meira; Mateus, Tiago; Gaspar, Diana; Neves, Nuno; Vicente, António; Filonovich, Sergej; Barquinha, Pedro; Fortunato, Elvira; Ferraria, Ana Maria; Rego, A.M. Botelho do; Bicho, A.; Águas, Hugo; Martins, Rodrigo

doi:10.1088/1468-6996/14/4/045009

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Two sets of samples were used. In the first set, the TCO material was varied and the thicknesses was fixed at 30 nm, which is the thickness typically used in plasmonic back reflector structures of thin film silicon solar cells. − This allowed us to obtain TCOs having approximately the same roughness (determined by AFM) but with a range of conductivities. In order to analyze the effect of the roughness in the MNPs morphology, a second set of experiments were performed.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In solar cell applications, the Ag MNP arrays are usually embedded in a 30–60 nm thick transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer, − commonly located between the cell absorbing material and a rear reflecting metallic contact, in a configuration known as plasmonic back reflector. − The TCO layer acts as a barrier, which not only inhibits charge-carrier recombination at the MNPs surface but also prevents the migration of metallic impurities from the particles to the photovoltaic material.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Influence of the Substrate on the Morphology of Self-Assembled Silver Nanoparticles by Rapid Thermal Annealing

et al. 2016

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Metal nanoparticles are of great interest for light trapping in photovoltaics. They are usually incorporated in the rear electrode of solar cells, providing strong light scattering at their surface plasmon resonances.In most cases, the nanoparticles are self-assembled by solid-state dewetting over a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer incorporated in the cell's rear electrode. Up to now, this process has been optimized mainly by tuning the thermal annealing parameters responsible for dewetting, or the thickness of the precursor metallic layer; but little attention has been paid to the influence of the underlying TCO layer properties on the morphology of the nanoparticles formed, which is the focus of the present article. This work investigates Ag nanoparticles structures produced on distinct surfaces by a simple, fast and highly reproducible method employing rapid thermal annealing. The results indicate that both the thermal conductivity and surface roughness of the TCO layer play a determinant role on the morphology of the nanostructures formed. This is of particular relevance, since we show in the study performed that the parasitic absorption of these Ag nanostructures is reduced, while the scattering is enhanced when the Ag nanostructures are formed on TCO layers with the highest conductivity and the lowest surface roughness (∼1 nm). These results unveil novel possibilities for the improvement of plasmonic nanostructures fabricated by thermal dewetting, via the careful adjustment of the physical properties of the underlying surface.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of the Substrate on the Morphology of Self-Assembled Silver Nanoparticles by Rapid Thermal Annealing

et al. 2016

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“…Plasmon-enhanced back reflectors, schematically shown in Fig. 1(a), are fabricated on sodalime glass substrates by sequential deposition of a 100 nm thick Ag mirror, a 40 nm thick aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) spacer layer [20], and a thin precursor Ag film, using RF magnetron sputtering. The sputtering of the precursor Ag film was performed with a relatively high power of 1 Wcm −2 and low working pressure of 1 Pa, at a deposition rate of 0.8 nm/s.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Broadband photocurrent enhancement in a-Si:H solar cells with plasmonic back reflectors

et al. 2014

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Plasmonic light trapping in thin film silicon solar cells is a promising route to achieve high efficiency with reduced volumes of semiconductor material. In this paper, we study the enhancement in the opto-electronic performance of thin a-Si:H solar cells due to the light scattering effects of plasmonic back reflectors (PBRs), composed of self-assembled silver nanoparticles (NPs), incorporated on the cells' rear contact. The optical properties of the PBRs are investigated according to the morphology of the NPs, which can be tuned by the fabrication parameters. By analyzing sets of solar cells built on distinct PBRs we show that the photocurrent enhancement achieved in the a-Si:H light trapping window (600 - 800 nm) stays in linear relation with the PBRs diffuse reflection. The best-performing PBRs allow a pronounced broadband photocurrent enhancement in the cells which is attributed not only to the plasmon-assisted light scattering from the NPs but also to the front surface texture originated from the conformal growth of the cell material over the particles. As a result, remarkably high values of J(sc) and V(oc) are achieved in comparison to those previously reported in the literature for the same type of devices.

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“…Various approaches have been proposed to enhance the overall solar cell efficiency in the thin film or nano-based solar cells. These include: putting a photonic crystal or distributed Bragg reflector in the back of thin film solar cells [1][2][3], using a disperse carbon interlayer and textured photonic crystal backside reflector to prompt back reflected effects [4,5], and combining holey double-layer photonic crystals with ultrathin c-Si solar cells [6]. Recently, solar cells utilizing nanowire arrays, overlapping nanospheres, nano-colloids, and self-assembled silver nanoparticles have shown promise by exhibiting enhanced light trapping effect and greater energy absorption rates than conventional planar semiconductors [7][8][9][10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Photonic Nanostructures Design and Optimization for Solar Cell Application

et al. 2015

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In this paper, a semiconducting photonic nanostructure capable of wide range absorption and tunable optical resonance has been designed with a proposed theoretical optimization model. The design consists of ZnO/CdS core-shell nanowire arrays as well as multilayer thin films that act to absorb incident electromagnetic (EM) waves over a broad frequency range. Theoretical, as well as numerical, studies of the nanostructure inside a solar cell plate have been conducted in order to validate the proposed microstructural design. Excellent energy absorption rates of EM waves have been achieved in the high frequency range by using the optical resonance of the nanowire array. By combining multilayer thin film with the core-shell nanowire in the unit cell of a photonic solar cell, a broadband high absorption has been achieved. Moreover, the geometry of the proposed photonic nanostructure is obtained through the implementation of a genetic algorithm. This avoids local minima and an optimized absorption rate of ~90% over the frequency range of 300 to 750 THz has been obtained in the solar cell.

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Role of a disperse carbon interlayer on the performances of tandem a-Si solar cells

Cited by 6 publications

References 39 publications

Influence of the Substrate on the Morphology of Self-Assembled Silver Nanoparticles by Rapid Thermal Annealing

Influence of the Substrate on the Morphology of Self-Assembled Silver Nanoparticles by Rapid Thermal Annealing

Broadband photocurrent enhancement in a-Si:H solar cells with plasmonic back reflectors

Photonic Nanostructures Design and Optimization for Solar Cell Application

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