Silicon heterojunction solar cells with effectively transparent front contacts

Saive, Rebecca; Boccard, Mathieu; Saenz, Theresa; Yalamanchili, Sisir; Bukowsky, Colton R.; Jahelka, Phillip; Yu, Zhengshan J.; Shi, Jianwei; Holman, Zachary; Atwater, Harry A.

doi:10.1039/c7se00096k

Title: Silicon heterojunction solar cells with effectively transparent front contacts

Journal Article · Mon Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Sustainable Energy & Fuels

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c7se00096k· OSTI ID:1579846

^[1]; Boccard, Mathieu ^[2]; Saenz, Theresa ^[1]; Yalamanchili, Sisir ^[1]; Bukowsky, Colton R. ^[1]; Jahelka, Phillip ^[1]; Yu, Zhengshan J. ^[2]; Shi, Jianwei ^[2]; Holman, Zachary ^[2]; Atwater, Harry A. ^[1]

California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

We demonstrate silicon heterojunction solar cells with microscale effectively transparent front contacts (ETCs) that redirect incoming light to the active area of the solar cell. Replacing standard contact electrodes by ETCs leads to an enhancement in short circuit current density of 2.2 mA cm^–2 through mitigation of 6% shading losses and improved antireflection layers. ETCs enable low loss lateral carrier transport, with cells achieving an 80.7% fill factor. Furthermore, dense spacing of the contact lines allows for a reduced indium tin oxide thickness and use of non-conductive, optically optimized antireflection coatings such as silicon nitride. We investigated the performance of ETCs under varying light incidence angles, and for angles parallel to the ETC lines find that there is no difference in photocurrent density with respect to bare indium tin oxide layers. In conclusion, for angles perpendicular to the ETC lines, we find that the external quantum efficiency (EQE) always outperforms cells with flat contact grids.

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Research Organization:: Stanford Univ., CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0004946; EE0006335; EEC-1041895

OSTI ID:: 1579846

Journal Information:: Sustainable Energy & Fuels, Vol. 1, Issue 3; ISSN 2398-4902

Publisher:: Royal Society of ChemistryCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 29 works

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References (24)

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Aminosilane‐Modified CuGaO ₂ Nanoparticles Incorporated with CuSCN as a Hole‐Transport Layer for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells Lee, Byungho; Yun, Alan Jiwan; Kim, Jinhyun Advanced Materials Interfaces, Vol. 6, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201901372	journal	September 2019
Simulation of an efficient silicon heterostructure solar cell concept featuring molybdenum oxide carrier-selective contact Mehmood, Haris; Nasser, Hisham; Tauqeer, Tauseef International Journal of Energy Research, Vol. 42, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1002/er.3947	journal	November 2017
Microchannel contacting of crystalline silicon solar cells Bullock, James; Ota, Hiroki; Wang, Hanchen Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08913-y	journal	August 2017
Mesoscale trumps nanoscale: metallic mesoscale contact morphology for improved light trapping, optical absorption and grid conductance in silicon solar cells Saive, Rebecca; Atwater, Harry A. Optics Express, Vol. 26, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1364/oe.26.00a275	journal	January 2018

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