Optical parameter determination of amorphous semiconductor thin films for photovoltaic device modeling.

A numerical model is developed for calculating the optical properties of amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) thin films from the spectral response of optical transmission of the films. The method includes predicting the envelopes of upper and lower values of the fringes in transmission spectra, and numerically calculating the film thickness and the spectral responses of refractive index, absorption, and extinction coefficient, which are key optical parameters of the thin film. The procedure was employed on various a-Si:H thin films and obtained reliable accuracy in calculated physical and optical parameters above 98% of the values obtained from spectroscopy ellipsometer technique. Further, the optical model results were used to simulate a-Si:H based solar cell using SCAPS-1D and were in close agreement with the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]