Effective Light Trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells with Nano- and Microscale Structures on Glass Substrate

For thin film silicon-based solar cells, effective light trapping at a broad range of wavelengths (400-1100 nm) is necessary. Normally, etching is only carried out with TCOs, such as SnO2:F and impurity doped ZnO, to form nano-sized craters in the surface morphology to confer a light trapping effect. However, in this study, prior to ZnO:Al etching, periodic structures on the glass substrates were made by photolithography and wet etching to increase the light scattering and internal reflection. The use of periodic structures on the glass substrate resulted in higher haze ratios in the range from 550 nm to 1100 nm, which is the optical absorption wavelength region for thin film silicon solar cells, than obtained by simple ZnO:Al etching. The periodically textured glass with micro-sized structures compensates for the low haze ratio at the middle and long wavelengths of wet etched ZnO:Al. ZnO:Al was deposited on the periodically textured glass, after which the ZnO:Al surface was also etched randomly using a mixed acid solution to form nano-sized craters. The thin film silicon solar cells with 350-nm-thick amorphous silicon absorber layer deposited on the periodic structured glass and etched ZnO:Al generated up to 10.68% more photocurrent, with 11.2% increase of the conversion efficiency compared to the cell deposited on flat glass and etched ZnO:Al.