Improving the performance of thin-film silicon solar cells by optimizing anti-reflection layers and analyzing structural defects using the FDTD method

Samadi, Masumeh; Heidary, Gholamhossein; Bahirayee, Hamed

doi:10.47176/ijpr.26.1.82172

Improving the performance of thin-film silicon solar cells by optimizing anti-reflection layers and analyzing structural defects using the FDTD method

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

masumeh samadi ¹

Gholamhossein Heidary ²

Hamed Bahirayee ¹

¹ Department of Physics, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Malayer University, Malayer, Iran

² Department of Physics, Faculty of Basic Sciences, University of Shahrekord, Shahrekord, Iran Nanotechnology Research Institute, University of Shahrekord, Shahrekord, Iran

https://doi.org/10.47176/ijpr.26.1.82172

Abstract

Light reflection is one of the main factors that reduces the efficiency of silicon solar cells. In conventional thick silicon cells, anti-reflection structures such as textured surfaces are used, but this method is not effective for new generation thin-film cells with a thickness of approximately 3 μm. In this study, silicon thin-film cells with a single anti-reflection layer (Si₃N₄) and a double anti-reflection layer (MgF₂/Si₃N₄) were simulated using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) numerical method. The results showed that, for the cell with a single-layer coating, the lowest reflection is achieved when the thickness of the Si₃N₄ layer is 62 nm. In the double-layer structure of MgF₂/Si₃N₄, the most optimal thicknesses were 112 and 62 nm, respectively. In addition, the electrical performance of the cell was carried out in two ideal (defect-free) and real (taking into account volumetric and surface defects) states. The electro-optical analysis showed that the presence of defects can reduce the cell efficiency by about 50% compared with the ideal state.

Keywords

Thin-film silicon solar cell

Electro-optical simulation

Anti-reflective layer

Volume defect

Surface defect

Subjects

Optics and Photonics

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