Effect of ultraviolet and near-infrared nanosecond laser ablation of crystalline silicon for solar cell applications

Date

2024-1-22

Author

Candemir, Özün

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The silicon-based solar cells overwhelmingly lead the photovoltaic (PV) industry due to the widespread availability of silicon and its well-established technology. The primary focus of the PV industry is to boost the efficiency of solar cells and reduce production costs, a critical factor in advancing the market share of renewable energy. The optical losses are an important factor for the efficiency of solar cells and surface texturing methods for reducing reflection losses are vital applications. The monocrystalline silicon wafers can be textured by anisotropic alkaline etchants and result in a pyramidal texture on the surface. Whereas, multi-crystalline silicon wafers can not be etched with these well-studied anisotropic etchants efficiently enough. Thus, laser texturing is an alternative for multi-crystalline surface texturing isotropically without being influenced by the grain orientation of the multicrystalline silicon wafer. The laser texturing method employs a high-power pulsed laser by means of ablation of the surface of the wafer. In the scope of this thesis, first, the laser texturing mechanism is studied with two different nanosecond pulsedlasers - ultraviolet and infrared wavelength lasers - to see the effect of the laser wavelength. Then, a proper post-texture cleaning method is utilized and optimizedvi with chemical etchants. In order to see the effectiveness of these steps SEM imaging and reflectance measurements are done. Finally, these optimized laser texturing and post-texture cleaning results are applied to multi-crystalline solar cells to see the effectiveness of the method. With optimized results, 16.2% conversion efficiency and 650 mV open circuit current values are obtained in a 3 x 3 cm2 solar cell area

Subject Keywords

Solar cell, Nanosecond laser ablation, Laser texturing

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/108439

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis