Light absorption enhancement in thin-film solar cells by embedded lossless silica nanoparticles

Embedded silica nanoparticles in thin-film silicon solar cells have some advantages over metal nanoparticles in enhancing optical absorption of silicon such as no loss, better compatibility with antireflection coating and extremely low dangling bond densities and interface recombination velocities....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of optics (2010) 2013-05, Vol.15 (5), p.55005-1-6
Main Authors: Li, Baozeng, Lin, Jingquan, Lu, Ji, Su, Xiaoxiao, Li, Jie
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
antireflection coating
Arrays
Density
Finite difference method
Nanoparticles
Photovoltaic cells
silica nanoparticles
Silicon
Silicon dioxide
silicon solar cells
Solar cells
Thin films
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Summary:Embedded silica nanoparticles in thin-film silicon solar cells have some advantages over metal nanoparticles in enhancing optical absorption of silicon such as no loss, better compatibility with antireflection coating and extremely low dangling bond densities and interface recombination velocities. To the best of our knowledge, we have carried out the first systematic study of optical absorption enhancement with silica nanoparticles of different radii, array periods and depths in the silica substrate with the finite-difference time-domain method, and we have obtained the optimum values of the nanoparticle parameters. We discuss the physical mechanism of the optical absorption enhancement in detail and attribute the enhancement to the superposition of the particle scattering effect and the Fabry-Perot resonance effect.
ISSN:2040-8978
2040-8986
DOI:10.1088/2040-8978/15/5/055005