Crystalline silicon microwire solar cells with light-scattering silica beads

Abstract

Light absorption is one of the most important factors affecting the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of solar cells. However, since the position of the sun changes depending on the season and time, the light absorption of the solar cell is not constant. This is because the amount of light absorbed by the solar cell decreases as the angle of incidence of light reaching the solar cell increases. Therefore, it is necessary to minimize light absorption loss due to a change in the angle of incidence of light reaching the solar cell for maximizing solar power generation. In this study, we used microwire structures for maximizing light absorption and minimizing light absorption loss according to the angle of incidence of light. As a result, we confirmed that the PCE of the solar cell without the structure decreased by over 55% when the incident angle of the light changed from 0 to 60°, whereas the PCE of the solar cells with microwire structures decreased by less than 35%. Furthermore, we added the light-scattering silica beads, which is almost no self-light absorption, between the microwire structures to minimize light absorption loss according to the angle of incidence of light. This work provides a novel strategy to reduce the angular dependence of PCE degradation of the solar cells.