The most important factor in enhancing the performance of an optical device is to minimize reflection and increasing transmittance of light for a broad wavelength range. The choice of appropriate coating material is crucial in decreasing reflection losses at the substrate. The purpose of this review is to highlight anti-reflection coating (ARC) materials that can be applied to silicon solar cell and glass substrate for minimizing reflection losses. The optical and electrical behavior of ARC on a substrate is highly dependent on thickness and refractive index (RI) of ARC films that are being deposited on it. The coating techniques and performance of single and multi-layered ARC films after coated on a substrate in a wide range of wavelength spectrum will be studied in the paper.

The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of a two-terminal tandem solar cell depends upon the tunnel-recombination junction (TRJ) between the top and bottom sub-cells. An optimized TRJ in a tandem cell helps improve its open-circuit voltage (V_oc), short-circuit current density (J_sc), fill factor (FF), and efficiency (PCE). One of the parameters that affect the TRJ is the buffer layer thickness. Therefore, we investigated various TRJs by varying the thickness of the buffer or intermediate layer (TRJ-buffer) in between the highly doped p-type and n-type layers of the TRJ. The TRJ-buffer layer was p-type nc-Si:H, with a doping of 0.06%, an activation energy (E_a) of 43 meV, an optical gap (E_g) of 2.04 eV, and its thickness was varied from 0 nm to 125 nm. The tandem solar cells we investigated were a combination of a heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) bottom sub-cell and an a-Si:H (amorphous silicon) top sub-cell. The initial cell efficiency without the TRJ buffer was 7.65% while with an optimized buffer layer, its efficiency improved to 11.74%, i.e., an improvement in efficiency by a factor of 1.53.

This study investigates the degradation characteristics of different material types of ethyl vinyl acetate (EVA) and polyolefin (POE) with combining transparent backsheet. To this end, we fabricated samples with structure of glass/encapsulant/transparent backsheet for each type of encapsulants, and shingled Si modules with the same structure. The samples were then subjected to accelerated test by storing under damp heat condition of 85℃ and 85% RH. As a result, encaplsulant discoloration was observed, which the transmittance of the samples with EVA decreased in a rapid rate than the samples with POE. The discoloration also affected a power degradation of the shingled modules with a reduction of current density, resulting that the module with EVA showed more drop on the efficiency than the modules with POE. Furthermore, corrosion of the soldered ribbon caused by acetic acid produced from the degraded EVA also contributed in fill factor reduction.

It is clear that monocrystalline Silicon (Si) ingots are the key raw material for semiconductors devices. In the present industries markets, most of monocrystalline Silicon (Si) ingots are made by Czochralski Process due to their advantages with low production cost and the big crystal diameters in comparison with other manufacturing process such as Float-Zone technique. However, the disadvantage of Czochralski Process is the presence of impurities such as oxygen or carbon from the quartz and graphite crucible which later will resulted in defects and then lowering the efficiency of Si wafer. The heat transfer plays an important role in the formation of Si ingots. However, the heat transfer generates convection in Si molten state which induces the defects in Si crystal. In this study, a crystal growth simulation software was used to optimize the Si crystal growth process. The furnace and system design were modified. The results showed the melt-crystal interface shape can affect the Si crystal growth rate and defect points. In this study, the defect points and desired interface shape were controlled by specific crystal growth rate condition.

CuS thin films were deposited on glass substrates at room temperature by RF magnetron sputtering. The structural and optical properties of CuS thin films grown by varying RF-power from 40 W to 100 W were studied. From the XRD analysis, we confirmed hexagonal crystal structures grown in the preferred orientation of the (110) plane in all CuS thin films, and the intensity of the main diffraction peak increased in proportion to the increase of RF-power. In the case of CuS thin film deposited at 40W, small-sized particles formed a thin and dense surface morphology with narrow pore spacing, relatively. As the power increased, the grain size and grain boundary spacing increased sequentially. The peaks for the binding energy of Cu 2p_3/2 and Cu 2p_1/2 were determined at 932.1 eV and 952.0 eV, respectively. The difference in binding energy for the Cu²⁺ states was the same at 19.9 eV regardless of process parameters. The transmittance and band gap energy in the visible region tended to decrease with increasing sputtering powers.

Single-phased SnS thin films have been prepared by RF magnetron sputtering at various deposition pressures. The effect of deposition pressure on the structural and optical properties of polycrystalline SnS thin films was studied using X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet-visible-near infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectrophotometer. The XRD analysis revealed the orthorhombic structure of the SnS thin films oriented along the (111) plane direction. As the deposition pressure was increased from 5 mTorr to 15 mTorr, the intensity of the peak on the (111) plane increased, and the intensity decreased under the condition of 20 mTorr. The binding energy difference at the Sn 3d_5/2 and S 2p_3/2 core levels was about 324.5 eV, indicating that the SnS thin film was prepared as a pure Sn-S phase. The optical properties of the SnS thin films indicate the presence of direct allowed transitions with corresponding energy band gap in the rang 1.47-1.57 eV.

In this study, we predict the generation of end-of-life photovoltaic modules when Feed in Tariff applied, in Republic of Korea. Based on the installation of photovoltaic modules, we prepared three different senarios in order to estimate the generation of end-of-life photovoltaic modules. The senarios are i) early worn-out, ii) mid worn-out and iii) late-worn out senario. We selected the mid worn-out senario to estimated the amount of end-of-life photovoltaic modules in this study. Establishment of the end-of-life module generation scenario predicted generation of end-of-life photovoltaic module, and forecasted generation amount of end-of-life module to which Feed in Tariff was applied in consideration of installed photovoltaic modules installed by Feed in Tariff support. The generation of Feed in Tariff-applied end-of-life modules increased from 2021 to 2025 compared to without Feed in Tariff, and since then, the Feed in Tariff-applied end-of-life modules were generated as waste modules during the relevant period (2021 ~ 2025).