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Nano Research 2011, 4(2): 153-158 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-010-0064-y
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 01 February 2011

Effects of Nanostructured Back Reflectors on the External Quantum Efficiency in Thin Film Solar Cells

Show Author's Information Chingmei Hsu1,  George F. Burkhard2,  Michael D. McGehee1,  Yi Cui1( )
Department of Materials Science and EngineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCalifornia94305USA
Department of Applied PhysicsStanford UniversityStanfordCalifornia94305USA
Keywords:
scattering, Solar cells, solar energy, amorphous silicon, back reflector
Cite this article:
Hsu C, Burkhard GF, McGehee MD, et al. Effects of Nanostructured Back Reflectors on the External Quantum Efficiency in Thin Film Solar Cells. Nano Research, 2011, 4(2): 153-158. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-010-0064-y
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Abstract Full text About this article

Hydrogenated amorphous Si (α-Si: H) is a promising material for photovoltaic applications due to its low cost, high abundance, long lifetime, and non-toxicity. We demonstrate a device designed to investigate the effect of nanostructured back reflectors on quantum efficiency in photovoltaic devices. We adopt a superstrate configuration so that we may use conventional industrial light trapping strategies for thin film solar cells as a reference for comparison. We controlled the nanostructure parameters via a wafer-scale self-assembly technique and systematically studied the relation between nanostructure size and photocurrent generation. The gain/loss transition at short wavelengths showed red-shifts with decreasing nanostructure scale. In the infrared region the nanostructured back reflector shows large photocurrent enhancement with a modified feature scale. This device geometry is a useful archetype for investigating absorption enhancement by nanostructures.


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About this article

Effects of Nanostructured Back Reflectors on the External Quantum Efficiency in Thin Film Solar Cells

Show Author's information Chingmei Hsu1, George F. Burkhard2, Michael D. McGehee1, Yi Cui1( )
Department of Materials Science and EngineeringStanford UniversityStanfordCalifornia94305USA
Department of Applied PhysicsStanford UniversityStanfordCalifornia94305USA

Abstract

Hydrogenated amorphous Si (α-Si: H) is a promising material for photovoltaic applications due to its low cost, high abundance, long lifetime, and non-toxicity. We demonstrate a device designed to investigate the effect of nanostructured back reflectors on quantum efficiency in photovoltaic devices. We adopt a superstrate configuration so that we may use conventional industrial light trapping strategies for thin film solar cells as a reference for comparison. We controlled the nanostructure parameters via a wafer-scale self-assembly technique and systematically studied the relation between nanostructure size and photocurrent generation. The gain/loss transition at short wavelengths showed red-shifts with decreasing nanostructure scale. In the infrared region the nanostructured back reflector shows large photocurrent enhancement with a modified feature scale. This device geometry is a useful archetype for investigating absorption enhancement by nanostructures.

Keywords: scattering, Solar cells, solar energy, amorphous silicon, back reflector

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Publication history
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Publication history

Received: 05 October 2010
Revised: 21 October 2010
Accepted: 24 October 2010
Published: 01 February 2011
Issue date: February 2011

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2010

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Tiemin Zhao and Dr. Zongfu Yu for material deposition and optical discussion.

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This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.

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