Light management on industrial size c-Si solar cells by Si nanowires fabricated by metal-assisted etching

Date

2012-04-27

Author

ES, FIRAT
DEMİRCİOĞLU, Olgu
KULAKCI, Mustafa
Ünalan, Hüsnü Emrah
Turan, Raşit

Metadata

Show full item record

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Item Usage Stats

181
views

0
downloads

Absorption of the light by a solar cell can be improved significantly by light trapping structures formed on the front surface of the device. In particular, thin crystalline and amorphous solar cells are expected to benefit from the improved light absorption in a region closer to the surface of the cell. Recently, we have shown that vertically aligned silicon (Si) nanowires formed on flat (100) Si wafer surface by metal assisted etching can effectively be used for this purpose. In this paper we present demonstration of nanowire application to industrial size solar cell system and a comparison between flat and pyramid textured Si wafers. Standard procedures were followed to fabricate solar cells with and without Si nanowire process on mirror like and pyramid textured Si wafers. The dependence of the solar cell parameters on the process parameters was studied systematically. Reflection spectra showed successful light trapping behavior on the surface of the cells. In all samples, we have obtained excellent current-voltage (I-V) characteristics with high fill factors. However, the efficiency of the cells was found to decrease with the etch duration. This can be attributed to the increased recombination along the nanowires or increased surface area due to the roughening of the surface after etching process.

Subject Keywords

Solar cell, Textured surface, Nanowire, Metal assisted etching, Light trapping

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/35084

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1117/12.918884

Collections

Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Conference / Seminar

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Light trapping by micro and nano-hole texturing of single-crystalline silicon solar cells ALTINOLUK, Serra H.; CIFTPINAR, Hande E.; DEMİRCİOĞLU, Olgu; ES, FIRAT; BAYTEMİR, Gulsen; AKAR, Orhan; AYDEMİR, Akin; SARAC, Adem; Akın, Tayfun; Turan, Raşit (Elsevier BV; 2016-03-09) The efficiency of a solar cell strongly depends on the interaction between the incoming light beam and the surface of the device. Any process enhances light-surface interaction increases absorption probability of the light; thus, improves generated current, in turn. Generated current could be improved either by light trapping or by increased device thickness. Considering fabrication costs and recombination losses, mechanically thin optically thick wafers are being focused on in terms of light trapping prope...
Nickel assisted chemical etching for multi-crystalline Si solar cell texturing: a low cost single step alternative to existing methods Takaloo, Ashkan Vakilipour; ES, FIRAT; BAYTEMİR, Gulsen; Turan, Raşit (2018-07-01) The texturing of silicon surfaces is a well-known method of reducing the reflection from the surface of crystalline Si solar cell devices. With the utilization of diamond wires in recent advances in wafer slicing technology, surface texturing for the multi-crystalline Si wafers by the traditional acid-based texturing technique has become difficult. Metal-Assisted Etching (MAE) has been shown to be a promising and low-cost alternative to the traditional acid-based isotropic texturing. This paper reports, for...
Radial junction solar cells prepared on single crystalline silicon wafers by metal-assisted etching BAYTEMİR, Gulsen; ES, FIRAT; ALAGOZ, Arif Sinan; Turan, Raşit (2017-05-01) Radial junction solar cells have been proposed as an alternative device geometry to conventional planar solar cells with its remarkable electrical and optical performance. In this geometry, densely packed nano/micropillars allow minority carrier collection in the radial direction and shorten carrier diffusion length to p-n junction. Besides, reduced reflection from surface and increased light trapping in nano/micropillars enhance solar cell efficiency. In this study, photolithography and metal-assisted etch...
Light Transport Analysis of Smart Windows for Solar Energy Harvesting Taylan, Onur; Berberoglu, Halil (2013-06-08) This paper presents a numerical study, analyzing the transport of light within a novel window concept that uses nanoparticles to guide the incident light to its edges covered with solar cells for generating electrical power. For illustrative purposes, silica coated silver nanoparticles of core radius 50 nm are considered in acrylic windows. The radiation characteristics of the nanoparticles are determined using the Mie theory for coated spheres and analyzed for the effects of the coating thickness as well a...
Optical light management by self-arrangement of inverted tetragonal pyramids on the silicon surface through copper-assisted etching technique in a single step Donercark, Ergi; Çolakoğlu, Tahir; Terlemezoğlu, Makbule; Abak, Musa Kurtulus; Çiftpınar, Emine Hande; Bek, Alpan; Turan, Razit (2022-09-01) Developing efficient light trapping techniques plays a crucial role in improving silicon (Si) solar cell parameters by decreasing optical losses. Herein, four various surface morphologies by copper-assisted chemical etching (Cu-ACE) technique under various process conditions were developed. The etching solution is composed of copper nitrate trihydrate (Cu[NO3](2)), hydrofluoric acid, and hydrogen peroxide in deionized water. The systematic correlation study on the molarity of the chemical ingredients reveal...

Citation Formats

F. ES, O. DEMİRCİOĞLU, M. KULAKCI, H. E. Ünalan, and R. Turan, “Light management on industrial size c-Si solar cells by Si nanowires fabricated by metal-assisted etching,” 2012, vol. 8373, Accessed: 00, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/35084.