Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 52: Focus Session: Nanophotonic Concepts and Materials for Energy Harvesting - Plasmonics, Transformation Optics, Upconversion, and beyond

O 52.6: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 12:45–13:00, EW 201

Opaline Photonic Crystals as Back Side Reflector for Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells — •Daniela Schneevoigt¹, Frederik Bub¹, Alexander N. Sprafke¹, Ralf B. Wehrspohn^1,2, André Hoffmann³, Karsten Bittkau³, Reinhard Carius³, Samuel Wiesendanger⁴, and Carsten Rockstuhl⁵ — ¹Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Germany — ²Fraunhofer IWM, Halle, Germany — ³Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany — ⁴Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Germany — ⁵Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, Germany

3D photonic crystals, such as opaline structures, have a tremendous potential to increase the efficiency of solar cells by enabling advanced light management concepts. Especially opaline structures applied to the back side of a solar cell provide various functions that can enhance the light path in the cell. Light in a specific spectral interval that is not absorbed during its first passage through the solar cell is strongly back reflected if the opal satisfies a Bragg condition. Light at other wavelengths might be diffracted back into the cell by the opal. By both means the probability of light absorption and thus the efficiency of the solar cell is increased. Here, we present the successful fabrication of large-area opaline structures at the back side of 1µm thick hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (µc-Si:H) single junction solar cells via an automated spray coating process. The optical, structural, and electrical characteristics of these structures on different µc-Si:H textures were analyzed and the photovoltaic characteristics of the completely integrated system were evaluated and compared to simulations.