Multi-resonant silver nano-disk patterned thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon solar cells for Staebler-Wronski effect compensation

TL;DR

This study introduces a multi-resonant silver nano-disk array embedded in a silicon nitride coating to enhance light absorption and current in amorphous silicon solar cells, potentially mitigating the Staebler-Wronski effect.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel nano-structured silver array design that improves optical absorption and current density in a-Si:H solar cells, with implications for stability and efficiency.

Findings

18.51% optical enhancement in absorption

19.65% increase in short-circuit current density

Enhanced stability due to reduced Staebler-Wronski effect

Abstract

We study polarization independent improved light trapping in commercial thin film hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar photovoltaic cells using a three-dimensional silver array of multi-resonant nano-disk structures embedded in a silicon nitride anti-reflection coating (ARC) to enhance optical absorption in the intrinsic layer (i-a-Si:H) for the visible spectrum for any polarization angle. Predicted total optical enhancement (OE) in absorption in the i-a-Si:H for AM-1.5 solar spectrum is 18.51% as compared to the reference, and producing a 19.65% improvement in short-circuit current density (JSC) over 11.7 mA/cm2 for a reference cell. The JSC in the nano-disk patterned solar cell (NDPSC) was found to be higher than the commercial reference structure for any incident angle. The NDPSC has a multi-resonant optical response for the visible spectrum and the associated mechanism for OE in i-a-Si:H layer is excitation of Fabry-Perot resonance facilitated by surface plasmon resonances. The detrimental Staebler-Wronski effect (SWE) in a-Si:H solar cell can be minimized by the additional OE in the NDPSC and self-annealing of defect states by additional heat generation, thus likely improving the overall stabilized characteristics of a-Si:H solar cells.