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Electrically flat/optically rough substrates for efficiencies above 10% in n-i-p thin-film silicon solar cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2012

Karin Söderström ,
Grégory Bugnon ,
Franz-Josef Haug  and
Christophe Ballif
Karin Söderström
Affiliation:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Electronics Laboratory (PV-Lab), 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Grégory Bugnon
Affiliation:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Electronics Laboratory (PV-Lab), 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Franz-Josef Haug
Affiliation:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Electronics Laboratory (PV-Lab), 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Christophe Ballif
Affiliation:
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Photovoltaics and Thin-Film Electronics Laboratory (PV-Lab), 2000 Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
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Abstract

Substrates with extremely low roughness to allow the growth of good-quality silicon material but that nevertheless present high light trapping properties are presented. In a first application, silver reflectors are used in single and tandem-junction amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. High initial (stable) efficiencies of 10.4 % (8.1 %) for single-junction a-Si:H cells on glass and 11.1 % (9.2 %) for tandem-junction a-Si:H/a-Si:H cells on plastic are obtained. A second application better suited to multi-junction solar cells based on microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) solar cells is presented: the substrate consists of rough zinc oxide (ZnO) grown on a flat silver reflector which is covered with a-Si:H; polishing of this structure yields an a-Si:H/ZnO interface that provides high light scattering even though the cell is deposited on a flat interface. We present results of ∼ 4-μm-thick μc-Si:H solar cells prepared on such substrates with high open-circuit voltages of 520 mV. A large relative efficiency gain of 20% is observed compared to a co-deposited cell grown directly on an optimized textured substrate.

Keywords

electrical propertiesoptical propertiesthin film
Type
Articles
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1426: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology–2012 , 2012 , pp. 39 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2012

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References

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