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Polycrystalline Silicon Thin-film Solar cells with Plasmonic-enhanced Light-trapping
Published on: July 2, 2012
Nano-patterned glass superstrates with different aspect ratios for enhanced light harvesting in a-Si:H thin film
Ting-Gang Chen1, Peichen Yu, Yu-Lin Tsai
1Department of Photonics and Institute of Electro-Optical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan.
Abstract:
Nano-patterned glass superstrates obtained via a large-area production approach are desirable for antireflection and light trapping in thin-film solar cells. The tapered nanostructures allow a graded refractive index profile between the glass and material interfaces, leading to suppressed surface reflection and increased forward diffraction of light. In this work, we investigate nanostructured glass patterns with different aspect ratios using scalable nanosphere lithography for hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin film solar cells. Compared to flat glass cell and Asahi U-type glass cell, enhancements in short-circuit current density (J(sc)) of 51.6% and 8%, respectively, were achieved for a moderate aspect ratio of 0.16. The measured external quantum efficiencies (EQE) spectra confirmed a broadband enhancement due to antireflection and light trapping properties.

