Plasmonic Light Trapping in Thin-Film Solar Cells: Impact of Modeling on Performance Prediction

Materials

Alberto Micco²  Marco Pisco²  Armando Ricciardi²  Lucia V. Mercaldo¹  Iurie Usatii¹  Vera La Ferrara¹  Paola Delli Veneri¹  Antonello Cutolo²  Andrea Cusano² 

[1] ENEA–Portici Research Center, Portici 80055, Italy; E-Mails:;Division of Optoelectronics, Engineering Department, University of Sannio, Benevento 82100, Italy; E-Mails:

关键词: solar cells;    plasmonics;    light trapping;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ma8063648

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

We present a comparative study on numerical models used to predict the absorption enhancement in thin-film solar cells due to the presence of structured back-reflectors exciting, at specific wavelengths, hybrid plasmonic-photonic resonances. To evaluate the effectiveness of the analyzed models, they have been applied in a case study: starting from a U-shaped textured glass thin-film, µc-Si:H solar cells have been successfully fabricated. The fabricated cells, with different intrinsic layer thicknesses, have been morphologically, optically and electrically characterized. The experimental results have been successively compared with the numerical predictions. We have found that, in contrast to basic models based on the underlying schematics of the cell, numerical models taking into account the real morphology of the fabricated device, are able to effectively predict the cells performances in terms of both optical absorption and short-circuit current values.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.