Selvaraj Venkataraj

Analytical solution for haze values of aluminium-induced texture (AIT) glass superstrates for a-Si:H solar cells

Light scattering at randomly textured interfaces is essential to improve the absorption of thin-film silicon solar cells. Aluminium-induced texture (AIT) glass provides suitable scattering for amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. The scattering properties of textured surfaces are usually characterised by two properties: the angularly resolved intensity distribution and the haze. However, we find that the commonly used haze equations cannot accurately describe the experimentally observed spectral dependence of the haze of AIT glass. This is particularly the case for surface morphologies with a large rms roughness and small lateral feature sizes. In this paper we present an improved method for haze calculation, based on the power spectral density (PSD) function of the randomly textured surface. To better reproduce the measured haze characteristics, we suggest two improvements: i) inclusion of the average lateral feature size of the textured surface into the haze calculation, and ii) considering the opening angle of the haze measurement. We show that with these two improvements an accurate prediction of the haze of AIT glass is possible. Furthermore, we use the new equation to define optimum morphology parameters for AIT glass to be used for a-Si:H solar cell applications. The autocorrelation length is identified as the critical parameter. For the investigated a-Si:H solar cells, the optimum autocorrelation length is shown to be 320 nm.

Light Scattering Enhancement by Double Scattering Technique for Multijunction Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

Light trapping is an important technique to increase the efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells. Textured surfaces are known to scatter sunlight while it passes through thin-film solar cells, thereby increasing the optical pathlength and, thus, the photon absorption in the devices. In this paper, microtextured glass superstrates were prepared by the aluminum-induced texturization (AIT) method. These superstrates achieve high transmission haze values of up to 60% while maintaining a high total optical transmission. We demonstrate that both the surface structure and the roughness of the textured glass surface can be controllably adjusted by changing the AIT process parameters. Approximately 900-nm-thick aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) films are deposited onto the microtextured glass surfaces by magnetron sputtering and then further textured using wet-chemical etching in diluted HCl, creating an AZO surface that features both micrometer-scale and submicron-scale structures. Optical spectroscopy and goniophotometer measurements reveal that the light scattering capability of the substrates increases significantly due to the wet-chemical AZO texturization. The combination of microtextured AIT glass, together with the submicron-textured AZO, could be very attractive for high-efficiency double-junction micromorph thin-film Si solar cells, whereby the amorphous Si top cell benefits significantly from the AZOs submicron texture and the microcrystalline Si bottom cell benefits primarily from the microtextured glass surface.

Analysis of Optical and Morphological Properties of Aluminium Induced Texture Glass Superstrates

Texturing the glass surface is a promising method for improving the light trapping properties of superstrate thin-film silicon solar cells, as it enables thinner absorber layers and, possibly, higher cell efficiencies. In this paper we present the optical and morphological properties of borosilicate glass superstrates textured with the aluminium induced texture (AIT) method. High haze values are achieved without any reduction in the total optical transmission of the glass sheets after the AIT process. Scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements reveal a laterally uniform surface morphology of the AIT texture. We demonstrate that the surface roughness and thus the transmission haze can be controlled by adjusting the AIT process parameters. From the AFM images, we extract histograms of the local height and angle distributions of the texture. Samples with a wide angle distribution are shown to produce the highest optical haze. The results of this analysis provide a better understanding of the correlation between the AIT process parameters and the resulting surface morphology. This analysis is further extended to an amorphous silicon pin solar cell deposited onto the textured glass substrate

Surface texturing studies of bilayer transparent conductive oxide (TCO) structures as front electrode for thin-film silicon solar cells

Surface textured transparent conductive oxide (TCO) thin films are widely used as the front electrode for thin-film silicon solar cells, as they can simultaneously provide good electrical conductance and optical management which improves the photon absorption via light scattering. In this paper, we report on bilayer TCO structures with enhanced electrical performance and good scattering properties. The bilayer TCO, made up of a highly conductive tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) layer and an etchable aluminium-doped (AZO) or intrinsic zinc oxide layer, are deposited onto soda-lime glass sheets via magnetron sputtering. The surface morphology of the ZnO films is subsequently modified using hydrochloric acid (HCl) etching. As for the bilayer TCO structure, the ITO mainly functions as the electrical layer and the surface textured ZnO acts as the optical layer for light scattering. Compared to single-layer AZO films, bilayer TCO films show different structural properties, which leads to disparate etching processes and thus different texturing properties.

Wet-Chemical Surface Texturing of Sputter-Deposited ZnO:Al Films as Front Electrode for Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) play a major role as the front electrodes of thin-film silicon (Si) solar cells, as they can provide optical scattering and hence improved photon absorption inside the devices. In this paper we report on the surface texturing of aluminium-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Al or AZO) films for improved light trapping in thin-film Si solar cells. The AZO films are deposited onto soda-lime glass sheets via pulsed DC magnetron sputtering. Several promising AZO texturing methods are investigated using diluted hydrochloric (HCl) and hydrofluoric acid (HF), through a two-step etching process. The developed texturing procedure combines the advantages of the HCl-induced craters and the smaller and jagged—but laterally more uniform—features created by HF etching. In the two-step process, the second etching step further enhances the optical haze, while simultaneously improving the uniformity of the texture features created by the HCl etch. The resulting AZO films show large haze values of above 40%, good scattering into large angles, and a surface angle distribution that is centred at around 30°, which is known from the literature to provide efficient light trapping for thin-film Si solar cells.

Adhesion Improvement and Characterization of Magnetron Sputter Deposited Bilayer Molybdenum Thin Films for Rear Contact Application in CIGS Solar Cells

Molybdenum (Mo) thin films are widely used as rear electrodes in copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells. The challenge in Mo deposition by magnetron sputtering lies in simultaneously achieving good adhesion to the substrates while retaining the electrical and optical properties. Bilayer Mo films, comprising five different thickness ratios of a high pressure (HP) deposited bottom layer and a low pressure (LP) deposited top layer, were deposited on 40 cm × 30 cm soda-lime glass substrates by DC magnetron sputtering. We focus on understanding the effects of the individual layer properties on the resulting bilayer Mo films, such as microstructure, surface morphology, and surface oxidation. We show that the thickness of the bottom HP Mo layer plays a major role in determining the micromechanical and physical properties of the bilayer Mo stack. Our studies reveal that a thicker HP Mo bottom layer not only improves the adhesion of the bilayer Mo, but also helps to improve the film crystallinity along the preferred [] direction. However, the surface roughness and the porosity of the bilayer Mo films are found to increase with increasing bottom layer thickness, which leads to lower optical reflectance and a higher probability for oxidation at the Mo surface.

Effect of deposition pressure on the properties of magnetron-sputter-deposited molybdenum back contacts for CIGS solar cells

Molybdenum (Mo) thin films were deposited onto soda-lime glass substrates by DC magnetron sputtering of a Mo target at various chamber pressures ranging from 1.5 × 10−3 to 7.5 × 10−3 mbar. The film properties were analysed with regards to their application as back electrode in copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells. It is observed that the resulting film morphology and microstructure were strongly affected by deposition pressure. Mo films deposited at a low pressure possess a high density and a low sheet resistance. These films also have a compact microstructure and a compressive strain, which lead to poor adhesion. The adhesion can be improved by increasing the chamber pressure, which has negative effects on the sheet resistance, optical reflection and porosity of the films. On the basis of these results, a method has been established to fabricate low-resistivity Mo films on soda-lime glass with very good adhesion for CIGS solar cell applications.

Optical Absorption Enhancement in Amorphous Silicon Films and Solar Cell Precursors Using the Aluminum-Induced Glass Texturing Method

One of the key issues of thin-film silicon solar cells is their limited optical absorptance due to the thin absorber layer and the low absorption coefficient for near-infrared wavelengths. Texturing of one or more interfaces in the layered structure of these cells is an important technique to scatter light and enhance the optical pathlength. This in turn enhances the optical absorption of the solar radiation in the absorber layer and improves the solar cell efficiency. In this paper we investigate the effects of textured glass superstrate surfaces on the optical absorptance of intrinsic a-Si:H films and a-Si:H p-i-n thin-film solar cell precursors deposited onto them. The silicon-facing surface of the glass sheets was textured with the aluminium-induced glass texturing method (AIT method). Absorption in both intrinsic silicon films and solar cell precursor structures is found to increase strongly due to the textured glass superstrate. The increased absorption due to the AIT glass opens up the possibility to reduce the absorber layer thickness of a-Si:H solar cells.

Optimum feature size of randomly textured glass substrates for maximum scattering inside thin-film silicon solar cells

Optimization of light scattering by designing proper randomly textured surfaces is one of the important issues when designing thin-film silicon solar cell structures. The wavelength region that needs to be scattered depends on the absorber material and the thickness of the solar cell. The optimum morphology of the textured substrate can be defined regarding the wavelength range intended for scattering. Good scattering is experimentally achieved by optimizing the fabrication process of the randomly textured substrate. However, optimum morphological parameters have not been analytically formulated. In this work we develop the morphological criteria for optimum light scattering in a-Si:H solar cells using Aluminum Induced Texture (AIT) glass superstrates. Transmission haze is widely used as an evaluating factor for scattering properties. Haze can be easily measured for the substrate/air interface. However, the relevant scattering properties are those in the absorber material. These properties cannot be measured directly, but can be predicted by an appropriate model. The simple model for haze calculation based on scalar scattering theory cannot correctly estimate the haze value because it only considers the root mean square (RMS) roughness of the textured surface, which does not contain information about lateral feature size. In addition, the opening angel of the haze measurement is not considered in the equation. In this work, we demonstrate that the power spectral density (PSD) function of the randomly textured surface can provide the missing information in the haze equation. A general formulation for calculating the lateral feature size based on the PSD function is presented. We use this calculated haze value based on PSD to find the optimum lateral feature size for scattering a specific wavelength into the desired material. The optimum lateral feature size for scattering 620-nm light, which is weakly absorbed in a-Si:H, is shown to be 100 nm.

Thin-film a-Si:H solar cells processed on aluminum-induced texture (AIT) glass superstrates: prediction of light absorption enhancement

Light scattering superstrates are important for thin-film a-Si:H solar cells. In this work, aluminum-induced texture (AIT) glass, covered with nonetched Al-doped ZnO (AZO), is investigated as an alternative to the commonly used planar glass with texture-etched AZO superstrate. Four different AIT glasses with different surface roughnesses and different lateral feature sizes are investigated for their effects on light trapping in a-Si:H solar cells. For comparison, two reference superstrates are investigated as well: planar glass covered with nonetched AZO and planar glass covered with texture-etched AZO. Single-junction a-Si:H solar cells are deposited onto each superstrate, and the scattering properties (haze and angular resolved scattering) as well as the solar cell characteristics (current-voltage and external quantum efficiency) are measured and compared. The results indicate that AIT glass superstrates with nonetched AZO provide similar, or even superior, light trapping than the standard reference superstrate, which is demonstrated by a higher short-circuit current Jsc and a higher external quantum efficiency. Using the trapped light fraction δ, a quantity based on the integrated light scattering at the AZO/a-Si:H interface, we show that Jsc linearly increases with δ in the scattering regime of the samples, regardless of the type of superstrate used.