• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• 제17권5호
• /
• pp.275-279
• /
• 2016

This is a brief review on light trapping in Si based thin film solar cells with textured surfaces and transparent conducting oxide front electrodes. The light trapping scheme appears to be essential in improving device efficiency over 10%. As light absorption in a thin film solar cells is not sufficient, light trapping becomes necessary to be effectively implemented with a textured surface. Surface texturing helps in the light trapping, and thereby raises short circuit current density and its efficiency. Such a scheme can be adapted to single junction as well as tandem solar cell, amorphous or micro-crystalline devices. A tandem cell is expected to have superior performance in comparison to a single junction cell and random surface textures appears to be preferable to a periodic structures.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국진공학회 2014년도 제46회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
• /
• pp.493-493
• /
• 2014

The manufacturing cost of thin-film photovoltics can potentially be lowered by minimizing the amount of a semiconductor material used to fabricate devices. Thin-film solar cells are typically only a few micrometers thick, whereas crystalline silicon (c-Si) wafer solar cells are $180{\sim}300\mu}m$ thick. As such, thin-film layers do not fully absorb incident light and their energy conversion efficiency is lower compared with that of c-Si wafer solar cells. Therefore, effective light trapping is required to realize commercially viable thin-film cells, particularly for indirect-band-gap semiconductors such as c-Si. An emerging method for light trapping in thin film solar cells is the use of metallic nanostructures that support surface plasmons. Plasmon-enhanced light absorption is shown to increase the cell photocurrent in many types of solar cells, specifically, in c-Si thin-film solar cells and in poly-Si thin film solar cell. By proper engineering of these structures, light can be concentrated and coupled into a thin semiconductor layer to increase light absorption. In many cases, silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NP) are formed either on the front surface or on the rear surface on the cells. In case of poly-Si thin film solar cells, Ag NPs are formed on the rear surface of the cells due to longer wavelengths are not perfectly absorbed in the active layer on the first path. In our cells, shorter wavelengths typically 300~500 nm are also not effectively absorbed. For this reason, a new concept of plasmonic nanostructure which is NPs formed both the front - and the rear - surface is worth testing. In this simulation Al NPs were located onto glass because Al has much lower parasitic absorption than other metal NPs. In case of Ag NP, it features parasitic absorption in the optical frequency range. On the other hand, Al NP, which is non-resonant metal NP, is characterized with a higher density of conduction electrons, resulting in highly negative dielectric permittivity. It makes them more suitable for the forward scattering configuration. In addition to this, Ag NP is located on the rear surface of the cell. Ag NPs showed good performance enhancement when they are located on the rear surface of our cells. In this simulation, Al NPs are located on glass and Ag NP is located on the rear Si surface. The structure for the simulation is shown in figure 1. Figure 2 shows FDTD-simulated absorption graphs of the proposed and reference structures. In the simulation, the front of the cell has Al NPs with 70 nm radius and 12.5% coverage; and the rear of the cell has Ag NPs with 157 nm in radius and 41.5% coverage. Such a structure shows better light absorption in 300~550 nm than that of the reference cell without any NPs and the structure with Ag NP on rear only. Therefore, it can be expected that enhanced light absorption of the structure with Al NP on front at 300~550 nm can contribute to the photocurrent enhancement.

• 신재생에너지
• /
• 제5권3호
• /
• pp.22-25
• /
• 2009

For increasing the output voltage, six SMD(surface mount device) type AlGaAs/GaAs solar cells were connected in series. The electrical properties of the array were measured and compared with one sun (100 mW/$cm^2$) and indoor light (480 lux) conditions. Under one sun condition, output power was 21.57 mW and it was $14.67\;{\mu}W$ under indoor light condition. Under the indoor light condition, the intensity of the light is very low compared to one sun condition. Thus the Voc(open circuit voltage) and Isc (short circuit current) of the sample under indoor light condition decreased very much compared to that of under the one sun condition. This kind of solar cell power supply can be used as a power source for ubiquitous sensor network (USN).

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국진공학회 2015년도 제49회 하계 정기학술대회 초록집
• /
• pp.77.2-77.2
• /
• 2015

Recently, metamaterials attracted much attention because of the potential applications for superlens, cloaking and high precision sensors. We developed several dielectric metamaterials for enhancing antireflection or light trapping capability in solar energy harvesting devices. Colloidal lithography and electrochemical anodization process were employed to fabricate self-assembed nano- and microscale dielectric metamaterials in a simple and cost-effective manner. We improved broadband light absorption in c-Si, a-Si, and organic semiconductor layer by employing polystyrene (PS) islands integrated Si conical-frustum arrays, resonant PS nanosphere arrays, and diffusive alumina nanowire arrays, respectively. We also demonstrated thin metal coated alumina nanowire array which is utilized as an efficient light-to-heat conversion layer of solar steam generating devices. The scalable design and adaptable fabrication route to our light management nanostructures will be promising in applications of solar energy harvesting system. On the other hands, broadband invisible cloaks, which continuously work while elastically deforming, are developed using smart metamaterials made of photonic and elastic crystals. A self-adjustable, nearly lossless, and broadband (10-12GHz) smart meatamaterials have great potentials for applications in antenna system and military stealth technology.

• Current Photovoltaic Research
• /
• 제4권1호
• /
• pp.1-7
• /
• 2016

Among the various types of solar cells, silicon based two terminal tandem solar cell is one of the most popular one. It is designed to split the absorption of incident AM1.5 solar radiation among two of its component cells, thereby widening the wavelength range of external quantum efficiency (EQE) spectra of the device, in comparison to that of a single junction solar cell. In order to improve the EQE spectra further and raise short circuit current density ($J_{sc}$) an optimization of the tradeoff between the top and bottom cell is needed. In an optimized cell structure, the $J_{sc}$ and hence efficiency of the device can further be enhanced with the help of light trapping scheme. This can be achieved by texturing front and back surface as well as a back reflector of the device. In this brief review we highlight the development of light trapping in the silicon based tandem solar cell.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 한국진공학회 2016년도 제50회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
• /
• pp.147.2-148
• /
• 2016

Light management technology is very important for thin film solar cells, which can reduce optical reflection from the surface of thin film solar cells or enhance optical path, increasing the absorption of the incident solar light. Using proper light trapping structures in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells, the thickness of absorber layers can be reduced. Instead, the internal electric field in the absorber can be strengthened, which helps to collect photon generated carriers very effectively and to reduce light-induced loss under long-term light exposure. In this work, we introduced a chemical etching technology to make honey-comb textures on glass substrates and analyzed the optical properties for the textured surface such as transmission, reflection and scattering effects. Using ray optics and finite difference time domain method (FDTD) we represented the behaviors of light waves near the etched surfaces of the glass substrates and discussed to obtain haze parameters for the different honey-comb structures. The simulation results showed that high haze values were maintained up to the long wavelength range over 700 nm, and with the proper design of the honey-comb structure, reflection or transmission of the glass substrates can be enhanced, which will be very useful for the multi-junction (tandem or triple junction) thin film a-Si:H solar cells.

• 신재생에너지
• /
• 제5권4호
• /
• pp.34-37
• /
• 2009

Using six SMD(surface mount device) type AlGaAs/GaAs single junction solar cells connected in series, a power source was fabricated for a white GaN LED. The electrical properties of the power source was measured and analyzed under one sun (100mW/$cm^2$) and various indoor light (300 - 900 lux) conditions. Under 600 lux indoor light condition, output power was 17.06 ${\mu}W$ and it was 30.75 ${\mu}W$ under 900 lux indoor light condition. Using the fabricated solar cell power supply, we have turned on the white GaN LED. It was worked well under 15 ${\mu}W$(at 480 lux) power supplied from solar cell array. This kind of solar cell power supply can be used as a power source for ubiquitous sensor network (USN).

• 한국태양에너지학회 논문집
• /
• 제31권4호
• /
• pp.41-47
• /
• 2011

The volumetric solar receiver is a key element of solar power plants using air. The solar flux distribution inside the receiver should be a priori known for its heat transfer analysis. Previous works have not considered characteristics of the solar flux although they change with radiative properties of receiver materials and receiver geometries. A numerical method, which is based on the Monte Carlo ray-tracing method, was developed in the current work. The solar flux distributions inside multi-channeled volumetric solar receivers were calculated when light is concentrated at the KIER solar furnace. It turned out that 99 percentage of the concentrated solar energy is absorbed within 15mm channel length for the channel radius smaller than 1.5mm. If the concentrated light is assumed to be diffuse, the absorbed solar energy at the channel entrance region is over predicted while the light penetrates more deeply into the channel. Once the presented results are imported into the heat transfer analysis, one could examine effects of material property and geometry of the receiver on air temperature profiles.

• 한국진공학회지
• /
• 제21권1호
• /
• pp.62-68
• /
• 2012

건재 일체형 태양광발전(BIPV) 응용을 위해 광 입사각에 따른 태양전지의 변환 효율은 중요하다. 양자효율은 태양전지의 파장별 전자 수집효율을 말하며, 입사각별 양자효율 측정으로 입사각에 따른 태양전지 출력 변화 요인을 분석할 수 있다. 이러한 입사각별 양자효율은 태양전지 종류에 따라 차이를 보인다. 본 연구에서는 가장 많이 쓰이는 벌크형 단결정 실리콘 태양전지와 박막형 비정질 실리콘 태양전지의 입사각별 양자효율을 비교하였다. 그 결과, 단결정 실리콘 태양전지에서는 광 입사각이 증가함에 따라 전 파장영역에서 양자효율이 감소했다. 반면, 비정질 박막 실리콘 태양전지에서는 단파장 영역에서는 결정질 실리콘과 동일하게 감소하였으나, 그 이후의 흡수 영역에서 약 $40^{\circ}$의 입사각까지 증가 또는 일정한 양자효율을 보이다가 이후에 급격히 감소하는 결과를 얻었다. 이는 비정질 박막 실리콘 태양전지에서 입사각이 증가함에 따라 특정 파장 영역에서 산란과 박막 구조의 영향으로 예상된다. 따라서, 태양전지의 구조 및 광학 구조 최적화 등으로 BIPV 적용에 유리한 구조 태양전지 제작이 가능할 것으로 보인다.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
• /
• 제1권2호
• /
• pp.69-74
• /
• 2010

Methodologies to improve photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) are reviewed. DSSC is usually composed of a dye-adsorbed $TiO_2$ photoanode, a tri-iodide/iodide redox electrolyte and a Pt counter electrode. Among the photovoltaic parameters of short-circuit photocurrent density, open-circuit voltage and fill factor, short-circuit photocurrent density is the collective measure of light harvesting, charge separation and charge collection efficiencies. Internal quantum efficiency is known to reach almost 100%, which indicates that charge separation occurs without loss by recombination. Thus, light harvesting efficiency plays an important role in improvement of photocurrent. In this paper, technologies to improve light harvesting efficiency, including surface area improvement by nano-dispersion, size-dependent light scattering efficiency, bi-functional nano material, panchromatic absorption by selective positioning of three different dyes and transparent conductive oxide (TCO)-less DSSC, are introduced.