1. Integration of a 2D Periodic Nanopattern Into Thin Film Polycrystalline Silicon Solar Cells by Nanoimprint Lithography
- Author
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Dries Van Gestel, Christos Trompoukis, Rafik Guindi, Islam Abdo, Valerie Depauw, Ivan Gordon, Ounsi El Daif, Jan Deckers, and Loic Tous
- Subjects
Materials science ,FOS: Physical sciences ,engineering.material ,7. Clean energy ,Nanoimprint lithography ,law.invention ,Monocrystalline silicon ,Optics ,law ,Plasmonic solar cell ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,Thin film ,Sheet resistance ,Condensed Matter - Materials Science ,business.industry ,Contact resistance ,Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci) ,Condensed Matter Physics ,Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials ,Polycrystalline silicon ,engineering ,Optoelectronics ,Dry etching ,business ,Optics (physics.optics) ,Physics - Optics - Abstract
The integration of two-dimensional (2D) periodic nanopattern defined by nanoimprint lithography and dry etching into aluminum induced crystallization (AIC) based polycrystalline silicon (Poly-Si) thin film solar cells is investigated experimentally. Compared to the unpatterned cell an increase of 6% in the light absorption has been achieved thanks to the nanopattern which, in turn, increased the short circuit current from 20.6 mA/cm2 to 23.8 mA/cm2. The efficiency, on the other hand, has limitedly increased from 6.4% to 6.7%. We show using the transfer length method (TLM) that the surface topography modification caused by the nanopattern has increased the sheet resistance of the antireflection coating (ARC) layer as well as the contact resistance between the ARC layer and the emitter front contacts. This, in turn, resulted in increased series resistance of the nanopatterned cell which has translated into a decreased fill factor, explaining the limited increase in efficiency., Authors' post-print version
- Published
- 2015