Silicon heterojunction solar cells with effectively transparent front contacts
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
[1];
- California Inst. of Technology (CalTech), Pasadena, CA (United States)
- Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1579846
- Grant/Contract Number:
- EE0004946; EE0006335; EEC-1041895
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Sustainable Energy & Fuels
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 1; Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 2398-4902
- Publisher:
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 14 SOLAR ENERGY
Citation Formats
Saive, Rebecca, Boccard, Mathieu, Saenz, Theresa, Yalamanchili, Sisir, Bukowsky, Colton R., Jahelka, Phillip, Yu, Zhengshan J., Shi, Jianwei, Holman, Zachary, and Atwater, Harry A. Silicon heterojunction solar cells with effectively transparent front contacts. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1039/c7se00096k.
Saive, Rebecca, Boccard, Mathieu, Saenz, Theresa, Yalamanchili, Sisir, Bukowsky, Colton R., Jahelka, Phillip, Yu, Zhengshan J., Shi, Jianwei, Holman, Zachary, & Atwater, Harry A. Silicon heterojunction solar cells with effectively transparent front contacts. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7se00096k
Saive, Rebecca, Boccard, Mathieu, Saenz, Theresa, Yalamanchili, Sisir, Bukowsky, Colton R., Jahelka, Phillip, Yu, Zhengshan J., Shi, Jianwei, Holman, Zachary, and Atwater, Harry A. Mon .
"Silicon heterojunction solar cells with effectively transparent front contacts". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/c7se00096k. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1579846.
@article{osti_1579846,
title = {Silicon heterojunction solar cells with effectively transparent front contacts},
author = {Saive, Rebecca and Boccard, Mathieu and Saenz, Theresa and Yalamanchili, Sisir and Bukowsky, Colton R. and Jahelka, Phillip and Yu, Zhengshan J. and Shi, Jianwei and Holman, Zachary and Atwater, Harry A.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1039/c7se00096k},
journal = {Sustainable Energy & Fuels},
number = 3,
volume = 1,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Mon Feb 27 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
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Works referencing / citing this record:
Aminosilane‐Modified CuGaO 2 Nanoparticles Incorporated with CuSCN as a Hole‐Transport Layer for Efficient and Stable Perovskite Solar Cells
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