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Designing High-Efficiency Thin Silicon Solar Cells Using Parabolic-Pore Photonic Crystals

Sayak Bhattacharya and Sajeev John*

  • Department of Physics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto M5S 1A7, Ontario, Canada

  • *john@physics.utoronto.ca
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Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 044009 – Published 6 April, 2018

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.9.044009

Abstract

We demonstrate the efficacy of wave-interference-based light trapping and carrier transport in parabolic-pore photonic-crystal, thin-crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells to achieve above 29% power conversion efficiencies. Using a rigorous solution of Maxwell’s equations through a standard finite-difference time domain scheme, we optimize the design of the vertical-parabolic-pore photonic crystal (PhC) on a 10−μm-thick c-Si solar cell to obtain a maximum achievable photocurrent density (MAPD) of 40.6  mA/cm2 beyond the ray-optical, Lambertian light-trapping limit. For a slanted-parabolic-pore PhC that breaks x−y symmetry, improved light trapping occurs due to better coupling into parallel-to-interface refraction modes. We achieve the optimum MAPD of 41.6  mA/cm2 for a tilt angle of 10° with respect to the vertical axis of the pores. This MAPD is further improved to 41.72  mA/cm2 by introducing a 75-nm SiO2 antireflective coating on top of the solar cell. We use this MAPD and the associated charge-carrier generation profile as input for a numerical solution of Poisson’s equation coupled with semiconductor drift-diffusion equations using a Shockley-Read-Hall and Auger recombination model. Using experimentally achieved surface recombination velocities of 10  cm/s, we identify semiconductor doping profiles that yield power conversion efficiencies over 29%. Practical considerations of additional upper-contact losses suggest efficiencies close to 28%. This improvement beyond the current world record is largely due to an open-circuit voltage approaching 0.8 V enabled by reduced bulk recombination in our thin silicon architecture while maintaining a high short-circuit current through wave-interference-based light trapping.

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Phys. Rev. Applied 9, 044009– Published 6 April, 2018
  • Received 23 August 2017
  • Revised 19 January 2018
Article part of CHORUS
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