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A New Approach to Light Scattering from Nanotextured Interfaces For Silicon Thin-film Solar Cells

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Corsin Battaglia ,
Jordi Escarre ,
Karin Söderström ,
Franz-Josef Haug ,
Didier Dominé ,
Andrea Feltrin  and
Christophe Ballif
Corsin Battaglia
Affiliation:
[email protected], EPFL, IMT, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Jordi Escarre
Affiliation:
[email protected], EPFL, IMT, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Karin Söderström
Affiliation:
[email protected], EPFL, IMT, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Franz-Josef Haug
Affiliation:
[email protected], EPFL, IMT, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Didier Dominé
Affiliation:
[email protected], EPFL, IMT, Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Andrea Feltrin
Affiliation:
[email protected], EPFL, IMT, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Christophe Ballif
Affiliation:
[email protected], EPFL, IMT, Neuchâtel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
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Abstract

We investigate the influence of refractive index contrast on the light scattering properties of nanotextured interfaces, which serve as front contact for p-i-n thin-film silicon solar cells. We here focus on ZnO surfaces with randomly oriented pyramidal features, known for their excellent light trapping performance. Transparent replicas, with a different refractive index, but practically identical morphology compared to their ZnO masters, were fabricated via nanoimprinting. Within the theoretical framework we recently proposed, we show how the angular and spectral dependence of light scattered by nanostructures with identical morphology but different refractive index may be related to each other allowing direct comparison of their light trapping potential within the device.

Keywords

photovoltaicnanostructureoptical properties
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1245: Symposium A – Amorphous and Polycrystalline Thin-Film Silicon Science and Technology-2010 , 2010 , 1245-A03-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2010

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References

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