Masashi Hino

High efficiency solar cells combining a perovskite and a silicon heterojunction solar cells via an optical splitting system

We have applied an optical splitting system in order to achieve very high conversion efficiency for a full spectrum multi-junction solar cell. This system consists of multiple solar cells with different band gap optically coupled via an “optical splitter.” An optical splitter is a multi-layered beam splitter with very high reflection in the shorter-wave-length range and very high transmission in the longer-wave-length range. By splitting the incident solar spectrum and distributing it to each solar cell, the solar energy can be managed more efficiently. We have fabricated optical splitters and used them with a wide-gap amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cell or a CH3NH3PbI3 perovskite solar cell as top cells, combined with mono-crystalline silicon heterojunction (HJ) solar cells as bottom cells. We have achieved with a 550 nm cutoff splitter an active area conversion efficiency of over 25% using a-Si and HJ solar cells and 28% using perovskite and HJ solar cells.

Minimizing optical losses in monolithic perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cells with a flat top cell.

In a monolithic perovskite/c-Si tandem device, the perovskite top cell has to be deposited onto a flat c-Si bottom cell without anti-reflective front side texture, to avoid fabrication issues. We use optical simulations to analyze the reflection losses that this induces. We then systematically minimize these losses by introducing surface textures in combination with a so-called burial layer to keep the perovskite top cell flat. Optical simulations show that, even with a flat top cell, the monolithic perovskite/c-Si tandem device can reach a matched photocurrent density as high as 19.57 mA/cm2.

Peeled-off flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells and Na diffusion effects on cell performances

Na diffusion on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells fabricated on top of polyimide-coated soda-lime glass (SLG) substrate were investigated. Polyimide-coated SLG that can be used as substrate for fabricating flexible solar cells by peeled-off process, shown to have the same efficiency with SLG reference which is around 12%, indicating diffusion of almost same amount of Na from the substrates into the CIGS. Additional Na incorporation by NaF post-deposition treatment (PDT) were applied to CIGS deposited on substrates with different Na quantity to understand the Na diffusion effect prior and post CIGS deposition. Improvement of cells performance were observed for CIGS deposited on both substrates with or without Na diffusion. Final conversion efficiency of 15% was achieved after PDT for CIGS deposited on Na-contained substrates suggesting that PDT can be used even for CIGS with Na diffusion from the substrate.

Efficiency enhancement of flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells deposited on polyimide-coated soda lime glass substrate by alkali treatment

Alkali treatment effects on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) solar cells deposited on polyimide-coated soda lime glass (PI-coated SLG) were investigated. CIGS on PI-coated SLG shows Na diffusion from the substrate, which should be controlled to obtain high efficiencies. Further incorporation of Na was achieved by enhancing diffusion from the substrate or by external incorporation using post-deposition treatment (PDT) methods. Both methods lead to a high efficiency of approximately 15%. Moreover, aside from Na, K was also incorporated by KF-PDT, resulting in efficiency improvement from 12% for an untreated CIGS to more than 18% at the maximum substrate temperature of 450 °C, which is comparable to CIGS deposited at higher temperatures using the same equipment. It was also found that the alkali concentration of CIGS deposited on PI-coated SLG shows almost the same behavior as that of a film deposited on a rigid glass, suggesting that the deposition technique for CIGS on the rigid glass can be applied to flexible substrates.

Flexible Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells fabricated using a polyimide-coated soda-lime glass substrate

Flexible solar cells with a Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) absorber layer were fabricated on a polyimide thin film using a lift-off process. Polyimide-coated soda-lime glass (SLG) was used as a substrate for fabricating CIGS solar cells before the lift-off process conducted to make the cells flexible. A conversion efficiency of 13.4% was achieved by low temperature deposition; this value is comparable to that obtained by direct deposition on a rigid glass substrate even without an external Na source. The final conversion efficiency after the lift-off process was 12.7% with some area correction due to the partial peeling-off between CIGS and Mo. Open-circuit voltage and fill factor did not change before and after the lift-off process, suggesting that the lift-off process did not give any physical damage.

High-current perovskite solar cells fabricated with optically enhanced transparent conductive oxides

We focused on fluorine tin oxide (FTO)-coated glass substrates for perovskite solar cells (PVSCs) and studied the effects of the optical properties and surface morphology on the short-circuit current density (J sc). The PVSC on our FTO substrate demonstrated a gain in J sc by 1.4–1.6 mA/cm2, compared with the PVSCs on commercial FTO substrates. This is attributed not only to the low absorption of the FTO substrate but also to the suppression of reflection loss, caused by the light trapping effect on the textured surface. Finally, the power conversion efficiency of our PVSC reached >21% with less hysteresis.

Optical Simulation of Multi-junction Solar Cells

We introduce our optical model for solar cell design. It is especially suitable for optimization of light-trapping schemes in multi-junction devices. We illustrate this for triple junction thin-film silicon and for perovskite/c-Si tandem solar cells.