title: Nanoimprint lithography for high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells.
abstract: We demonstrate high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells with transparent nanotextured front electrodes fabricated via ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography on glass substrates. By replicating the morphology of state-of-the-art nanotextured zinc oxide front electrodes known for their exceptional light trapping properties, conversion efficiencies of up to 12.0% are achieved for micromorph tandem junction cells. Excellent light incoupling results in a remarkable summed short-circuit current density of 25.9 mA/cm(2) for amorphous top cell and microcrystalline bottom cell thicknesses of only 250 and 1100 nm, respectively. As efforts to maximize light harvesting continue, our study validates nanoimprinting as a versatile tool to investigate nanophotonic effects of a large variety of nanostructures directly on device performance.
authors.affiliation: Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Institute of Microengineering (IMT), Neuchâtel, Switzerland. corsin.battaglia@epfl.ch
authors.forename: Corsin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Battaglia
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Escarré
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Söderström
authors.forename: Lukas
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Erni
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: Grégory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bugnon
authors.forename: Adrian
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Billet
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boccard
authors.forename: Loris
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barraud
authors.forename: Stefaan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: De Wolf
authors.forename: Franz-Josef
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Haug
authors.forename: Matthieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Despeisse
authors.forename: Christophe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ballif
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization / Q000379:methods; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010316:Particle Size; D012993:Solar Energy
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial