title: 2D back-side diffraction grating for improved light trapping in thin silicon solar cells.
abstract: Light-trapping techniques can be used to improve the efficiency of thin silicon solar cells. We report on numerical investigation of a light trapping design consisting of a 2D back-side diffraction grating in combination with an aluminum mirror and a spacing layer of low permittivity to minimize parasitic absorption in the aluminum. The light-trapping design was compared to a planar reference design with antireflection coating and back-side aluminum mirror. Both normally and obliquely incident light was investigated. For normal incidence, the light trapping structure increases the short circuit current density with 17% from 30.4 mA/cm(2) to 35.5 mA/cm(2) for a 20 microm thick silicon solar cell. Our design also increases the current density in thinner cells, and yields higher current density than two recently published designs for cell thickness of 2 and 5 microm, respectively. The increase in current may be attributed to two factors; increased path length due to in-coupling of light, and decreased parasitic absorption in the aluminum due to the spacing layer.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Energy Technology, Pb 40, 2027 Kjeller, Norway. jo.gjessing@ife.no
authors.forename: Jo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gjessing
authors.forename: Erik Stensrud
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Marstein
authors.forename: Aasmund
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sudbø
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012993:Solar Energy