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Broadband, polarization-insensitive and wide-angle absorption enhancement of a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem solar cells by nanopatterning a-Si:H layer

Xiaofeng Li, Cheng Zhang, Zhenhai Yang, and Aixue Shang

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

A photonic crystal design that significantly enhances the absorption of tandem thin-film solar cells composed by amorphous and microcrystalline silicon (i.e., a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem cell) is proposed. The top junction with a-Si:H is nanopatterned as a one-dimensional photonic crystal. Considering the photocurrent matching, we optimally design the junction thickness and the configuration of the nanopattern; moreover, both transverse electric and magnetic incidences with various illuminating angles are taken into account. Calculations by rigorous coupled-wave approach and finite-element method show that the nanophotonic crystal design can improve the absorption and output photocurrent by over 20%, which shows very low sensitivity to the incident polarization. Moreover, the proposed structure is able to sustain the performance for a very wide angle ranges from 0° to ~80°.

©2013 Optical Society of America

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Figures (7)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem solar cells under superstrate configuration with nanopatterned a-Si:H layer. The equivalent a-Si:H layer thickness in planar is defined as daSi by assuming an identical a-Si:H volume after being nanopatterned, i.e., ΛdaSi = bdg. Λ = 500 nm is used throughout this paper.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Pabs versus b and λ for TE (a) and TM (b) incidences. Total photocurrent Jtot ( = JaSi + JμcSi) versus b under TE and TM incidences, where the average value for TE and TM, i.e., (TE + TM)/2, and unpatterned case (i.e., w/o) are shown for reference.

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 Absorption spectra Pabs of a-Si:H and μc-Si:H layers (a) and reflection spectrum of the entire device (b) under optimal grating configurations, i.e., b = 390 nm for both TE and TM. Results for w/o case are also included in this figure.

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Absorbed power density distributions inside the two junctions (i.e., a-Si:H and μc-Si:H) for two optimal wavelengths with peaked Pabs, i.e., λ = 992 nm for TE (b) and λ = 1002 nm for TM (b). The pattern of w/o case at λ = 992 nm is also plotted as reference. The rest system parameters are same to those used in Fig. 3.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Absorption spectra Pabs of a-Si:H and μc-Si:H layers (a) and reflection spectrum of the entire device (b) under two configurations degrading the system performance, i.e., b = 100 nm for TE and b = 25 nm for TM. Results for w/o case are also included in this figure.

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 Jtot versus b and incident angle θ for TE (a) and TM (b) cases with their averaged value (TE + TM)/2 shown in (c).

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Fig. 7
Fig. 7 Angular dependence of Jtot vs θ for TE, TM, and (TE + TM)/2 at the corresponding b values obtained from Fig. 6.

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Tables (3)

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Table 1 Photocurrent densities under various nanoparttern configurations for TE, TM, and (TE + TM)/2, where daSi = 170 nm and dμcSi = 1700 nm. JaSi and JμcSi are both in mA/cm2. Photocurrent densities with the highest device outputs are in bold.

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Table 2 Photocurrent densities under various nanopattern configurations for TE, TM, and (TE + TM)/2, where daSi = 190 nm and dμcSi = 1700 nm to be used in the rest parts of this paper. JaSi and JμcSi are both in mA/cm2. Photocurrent densities with the highest device outputs are in bold.

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Table 3 JaSi and JμcSi for w/o under TE or TM and grating under TE, TM, or (TE + TM)/2 for two incident angels (i.e., 18° and 62°). JaSi and JμcSi are both in mA/cm2. For gratings under various situations, optimal values for b maximizing Jtot will be calculated and used.

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