Surface texturing study with aluminum induced texturing method on soda-lime glass substrates for thin film solar cells

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2017
Ünal, Mustafa
It is essential to employ an effective light trapping scheme to decrease the cost of produced solar electricity further in thin film solar cell technologies. There are several methods that can be used for light trapping and aluminum induced texturing (AIT) is one of them. The aim of this thesis study is to obtain highly effective light trapping interface via texturing of glass surface by AIT process. The resultant texture is affected by several parameters such as Al thickness, annealing time and temperature, etching conditions like etchant type, duration etc. In order to obtain high scattering interfaces, different parameters were optimized and studies focusing on understanding of the texturing mechanism has been conducted. In this thesis, it is observed that 50% of the transmitted light can be scattered through textured surface that formed by conventional AIT process. The scattering value can be increased nearly 80% for 400 nm wavelength with newly developed solution that is based on NaOH. In addition, an attempt has been made to model the reaction mechanism during the optimization of the annealing process. The composition of the glass predominantly affecting the resultant texture is also observed. Additionally, results indicate that combination of AIT textures with macro surface structures can result with enhancement in the scattering of transmitted light by nearly 90% for 400 nm wavelength. Following the optimization studies of AIT, the effect of the texturing on the performance of thin film solar cells has been tested by deposition for a-Si:H thin films and a-Si:H solar cells.   

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Citation Formats
M. Ünal, “Surface texturing study with aluminum induced texturing method on soda-lime glass substrates for thin film solar cells,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2017.