Impact of surface roughness on the electrical parameters of industrial high efficiency NaOH-NaOCl textured multicrystalline silicon solar cell

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2010.06.001 Byline: P.K. Basu (a), R.M. Pujahari (a)(b), Harpreet Kaur (b)(c), Devi Singh (b), D. Varandani (d), B.R. Mehta (d) Keywords: Multicrystalline large area silicon solar cell; NaOH-NaOCl texturization; HF-HNO.sub.3-CH.sub.3COOH texturization; AFM study; Reflectivity study; Cell LIV and DIV characteristics Abstract: Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) solution (1:1 ratio by volume) based texturization process at 80-82[degrees]C is an easy, low cost and comparatively new and convenient option for fabrication of any multicrystalline silicon (mC-Si) solar cell. In the present study atomic force microscope is used to observe the intragrain surface in a miniscule area (3[mu]mx3[mu]m) of NaOH-NaOCl textured surface by two and three dimensional analysis, roughness analysis and section analysis. The r.m.s value of the surface parameter of 7.0nm ascertains the smoothness of the textured surface and further the surface reflectivity is minimized to 4-6% in the 500-1000nm wavelength range by a proper silicon nitride anti-reflection coating. Comparing with the standard HF-HNO.sub.3-CH.sub.3COOH acid textured cell, the NaOH-NaOCl textured cell shows a comparatively lower value of series resistance of 7.17mI[c], higher value of shunt resistance of 18.4I[c] to yield a fill factor of 0.766 leading to more than 15% cell efficiency in the industrial cell processing line. This AFM study yields different surface roughness parameters for the NaOH-NaOCl textured wafers which can be used as a reference standard for optimized texturing. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Physics, Echelon Institute of Technology, Faridabad 121002, Haryana, India (b) Department of Physics, Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad 121001, Haryana, India (c) Department of Physics, Advanced Institute of Technology and Management, Palwal 121105, Haryana, India (d) Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi 110016, India Article History: Received 2 January 2010; Revised 21 May 2010; Accepted 7 June 2010 Article Note: (miscellaneous) Communicated by: Associate Editor Takhir Razykov