Upright Pyramid Surface Textures for Light Trapping and MoOx Layer in Ultrathin Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14500/aro.11586
Keywords: Absorbance, Crystalline silicon, Light trapping, MoOx, Solar Cells

Abstract

In this work, ray tracing is used to investigate the optical characteristics of various surface structures in ultrathin crystalline silicon (c-Si) for solar cells. Ultrathin c-Si with a thickness of 20 μm is used as the substrate. The light trapping includes front upright pyramids with a molybdenum oxides (MoOx) anti-reflection (AR) layer. Planar ultrathin c-Si (without a MoOx AR layer and upright pyramids) is used as a reference. The wafer ray tracer was developed by a photovoltaic (PV) lighthouse to model the MoOx AR layer to reduce the front surface reflectance and impacts of the AR layer on ultrathin Si solar cells. The optical properties are calculated on the AM1.5 global solar energy spectrum across the 200–1200 nm wavelength region. From the absorbance profile, the photogenerated current density (Jph) in the substrate is also calculated with various surface structures. The front upright pyramids with the MoOx layer result in the largest absorbance enhancement due to the enhanced light scattering by the pyramids and MoOx AR layer. The Jph of 37.41 mA/cm2 is improved when compared to the planar ultrathin c-Si reference. This study is significant as it illustrates the potential of ultrathin c-Si as a promising PV module technology in the future.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Chee, K.W.A., Tang, Z., Lü, H., and Huang, F., 2018. Anti-reflective structures for photovoltaics: Numerical and experimental design. Energy Reports, 4, 266-273. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2018.02.002

Garín, M., Pasanen, T.P., López, G., Vähänissi, V., Chen, K., Martín, I., and Savin, H., 2023. Black ultra-thin crystalline silicon wafers reach the 4n2 absorption limit-application to IBC solar cells. Small, 19, 2302250. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/smll.202302250

Hu, Q., Wang, J., Lu, Y., Tan, R., Li, J., and Song, W., 2022. Sputtering-deposited thin films on textiles for solar and heat managements: A mini-review. Physica Status Solidi (a), 219, 2100572. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.202100572

Huang, S., Xu, C., Wang, G., Du, J., Yu, J., Zhang, L., Meng, F., Zhao, D., Li, R., Huang, H., Liu, Z., and Liu, W., 2024. Smaller texture improves flexibility of crystalline silicon solar cells. Materials Letters, 357, 135768. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2023.135768

Kanda, H., Uzum, A., Harano, N., Yoshinaga, S., Ishikawa, Y., Uraoka, Y., Fukui, H., Harada, T., and Ito, S., 2016. Al2 O3 /TiO2 double layer anti-reflection coating film for crystalline silicon solar cells formed by spray pyrolysis. Energy Science and Engineering, 4, 269-276. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ese3.123

Li, Y., Ru, X., Yang, M., Zheng, Y., Yin, S., Hong, C., Peng, F., Qu, M., Xue, C., Lu, J., Fang, L., Su, C., Chen, D., Xu, J., Yan, C., Li, Z., Xu, X., and Shao, Z., 2024. Flexible silicon solar cells with high power-to-weight ratios. Nature, 626, 105-110. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06948-y

Lu, C., Rusli, Prakoso, A.B., and Li, Z., (2018). Aqueous Solution Deposited Molybdenum oxide Crystalline Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells. In: 2018 IEEE 7th World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (WCPEC) (A Joint Conference of 45th IEEE PVSC, 28th PVSEC and 34th EU PVSEC), pp.2155-2157. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2018.8547341

Macco, B., Vos, M., Thissen, N.F.W., Bol, A.A., and Kessels, W.M.M., 2015. Low-temperature atomic layer deposition of MoOx for silicon heterojunction solar cells. Physica Status Solidi, 9, 393-396. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pssr.201510117

Omar, H.D., Hashim, M.R., and Pakhuruddin, M.Z., 2020. Ray tracing of inverted pyramids for light-trapping in thin crystalline silicon for solar cells. Optik, 219, 165279. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijleo.2020.165279

Pakhuruddin, M.Z., 2020. Ray tracing of light trapping schemes in thin crystalline silicon for photovoltaics. Solid State Phenomena. Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland, pp.183-191. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/SSP.301.183

Pakhuruddin, M.Z., Huang, J., Dore, J., and Varlamov, S., 2016. Enhanced absorption in laser-crystallized silicon thin films on textured glass. IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, 6, 852-859. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOTOV.2016.2545410

Shanmugam, N., Pugazhendhi, R., Madurai Elavarasan, R., Kasiviswanathan, P., and Das, N., 2020. Anti-reflective coating materials: A holistic review from PV perspective. Energies, 13, 2631. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/en13102631

Tahir, S., Saeed, R., Ashfaq, A., Ali, A., Mehmood, K., Almousa, N., Shokralla, E.A., Macadangdang, R.R. Jr., Soeriyadi, A.H., and Bonilla, R.S., 2024. Optical modeling and characterization of bifacial SiNx/AlOx dielectric layers for surface passivation and antireflection in PERC. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications, 32, 63-72. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pip.3745

Valiei, M., Shaibani, P.M., Abdizadeh, H., Kolahdouz, M., Asl Soleimani, E., and Poursafar, J., 2022. Design and optimization of single, double and multilayer anti-reflection coatings on planar and textured surface of silicon solar cells. Materials Today Communications, 32, 104144. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtcomm.2022.104144

Xue, M., Nazif, K.N., Lyu, Z., Jiang, J., Lu, C.Y., Lee, N., Zang, K., Chen, Y., Zheng, T., Kamins, T.I., Brongersma, M.L., Saraswat, K.C., and Harris, J.S., 2020. Free-standing 2.7 μm thick ultrathin crystalline silicon solar cell with fficiency above 12.0%. Nano Energy, 70, 104466. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2020.104466

Zhou, Y., Wen, J., Zheng, Y., Yang, W., Zhang, Y., and Cheng, W., 2024. Status quo on recycling of waste crystalline silicon for photovoltaic modules and its implications for China’s photovoltaic industry. Frontiers in Energy. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-024-0923-y

Zin, N., Mcintosh, K., Bakhshi, S., Vázquez-Guardado, A., Kho, T., Fong, K., Stocks, M., Franklin, E., and Blakers, A., 2018. Polyimide for silicon solar cells with double-sided textured pyramids. Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, 183, 200-204. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.solmat.2018.03.015

ARO Journal: Volume 12, No. 1 (2024)
Published
2024-06-25
How to Cite
Omar, H. D. (2024) “Upright Pyramid Surface Textures for Light Trapping and MoOx Layer in Ultrathin Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells”, ARO-THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF KOYA UNIVERSITY, 12(1), pp. 203-206. doi: 10.14500/aro.11586.
Issue
Vol. 12 No. 1 (2024): Issue Twenty Two
Section
Articles

Copyright (c) 2024 Halo D. Omar

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Authors who choose to publish their work with Aro agree to the following terms:

  • Authors retain the copyright to their work and grant the journal the right of first publication. The work is simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0]. This license allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

  • Authors have the freedom to enter into separate agreements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work. This includes options such as posting it to an institutional repository or publishing it in a book, as long as proper acknowledgement is given to its initial publication in this journal.

  • Authors are encouraged to share and post their work online, including in institutional repositories or on their personal websites, both prior to and during the submission process. This practice can lead to productive exchanges and increase the visibility and citation of the published work.

By agreeing to these terms, authors acknowledge the importance of open access and the benefits it brings to the scholarly community.

Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC