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Design of nanostructured plasmonic back contacts for thin-film silicon solar cells

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Abstract

We report on a plasmonic light-trapping concept based on localized surface plasmon polariton induced light scattering at nanostructured Ag back contacts of thin-film silicon solar cells. The electromagnetic interaction between incident light and localized surface plasmon polariton resonances in nanostructured Ag back contacts was simulated with a three-dimensional numerical solver of Maxwell’s equations. Geometrical parameters as well as the embedding material of single and periodic nanostructures on Ag layers were varied. The design of the nanostructures was analyzed regarding their ability to scatter incident light at low optical losses into large angles in the silicon absorber layers of the thin-film silicon solar cells.

©2011 Optical Society of America

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Figures (9)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) Schematic cross-section of the tandem thin-film silicon solar cell with plasmonic back contacts consisting of (b) stochastic distributions of Ag nanostructures or (c) periodically arranged Ag nanostructures on the Ag back contact.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Cross section of the simulated geometries: (a) Isolated hemispherical nanostructure on Ag back layer embedded in ZnO:Al. (b) Isolated nanostructure on the Ag back layer embedded conformally in an 180 nm thick ZnO:Al layer and a µc-Si:H half-space. (c) Square lattice Ag reflection grating at the back contact. The absolute electric field distribution is shown, both, in a plane parallel (center) and a plane perpendicular (right side) to the polarization of the incident light (wavelength of 850 nm). The radius of the hemispherical nanostructure is 150 nm.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 Absorption efficiency Q abs (a) and scattering efficiency Q sca (b) of an isolated hemispherical nanostructure on Ag embedded in a ZnO:Al half-space. The grey region indicates the operating spectral range for a plasmonic back contact (500 nm < λ < 1100 nm).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Maximum scattering efficiency Qsca of the dominant LSPP resonance plotted against the resonance wavelength. Hemispherical Ag nanostructures of various radii embedded in SiO2, ZnO:Al and µc-Si:H (top) are studied. The grey region indicates the operating spectral range for a plasmonic back contact (500 nm < λ < 1100 nm).
Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Maximum absorption efficiency Qabs (a) and maximum scattering efficiency Qsca (b) of the dominant LSPP resonance plotted against the corresponding resonance wavelength λres. Conical, hemispherical and cylindrical nanostructures on Ag layers embedded in ZnO:Al (bottom) are studied. For all geometries the radius of the nanostructures is varied. The grey region indicates the operating spectral range of a plasmonic back contact in thin-film silicon solar cells (500 nm < λ < 1100 nm).
Fig. 6
Fig. 6 (a) Scattering efficiency Q sca and absorption efficiency Q abs as well as (b) normalized intensity distribution of scattered light of hemispherical Ag nanostructures (radius = 150 nm) embedded conformally in ZnO:Al and µc-Si:H. The thickness of the ZnO:Al layer is 180 nm.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7 Mean scattering and absorption efficiency of single nanostructures (hemispherical, radius = 150 nm) on Ag back contacts. The data is averaged over the relevant wavelength range (500 nm < λ < 1100 nm).
Fig. 8
Fig. 8 (a), (b) Simulated absorption A, specular reflection R spec and non-specular reflection R non-spec of square lattice reflection gratings of hemispherical Ag nanostructures at the back contact. The period of the reflection grating is set to 400 nm (left side) and 600 nm (right side). (c), (d) Scattering intensity distribution of the non-specular reflected light within the diffraction orders of the reflection grating as a function of the scattering angle and the wavelength. For comparison the total internal reflection angle of μc-Si:H/air (blue dotted line) and μc-Si:H/ZnO:Al (red dashed line) are given.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9 Simulated absorption A, specular reflection R spec and non-specular reflection R non-spec of reflection gratings formed by hemispherical Ag nanostructures at the back contact of a thin-film silicon solar cell [cf. Figure 2 (c)]. The data, which is averaged over the wavelength range from 500 nm to 1100 nm, is given for various periods of the reflection grating. Also the amount of light reflected non-specular to angles larger than the total reflection angle of the µc-Si:H/Air interface and the µc-Si:H/ZnO interface is given in R non-spec’ and R non-spec”, respectively.

Equations (2)

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Q abs = P a b s I i n c i d e n t C n a n o s t r u c t u r e   and Q sca = P s c a I i n c i d e n t C n a n o s t r u c t u r e
sin ( α ) = N x y λ L n μ c S i w i t h N x y = m x 2 + m y 2 a n d m x , m y = ± 0 , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , ...
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