Neutral-Colored Transparent Crystalline Silicon Photovoltaics

Abstract

Crystalline silicon (c-Si) is not used for developing transparent photovoltaics, owing to its opaque nature. Furthermore, adding optical transparency to a conventional c-Si wafer is one of the most challenging problems in this field. Here, we demonstrate the development of a neutral-colored transparent c-Si substrate using a 200-μm-thick c-Si wafer, which is known to be intrinsically opaque. Transparent c-Si substrates were fabricated by placing microhole-shaped light transmission windows on a bare c-Si wafer. These windows were designed to enable the transmission of all incident visible light through the substrate, resulting in a colorless substrate. A light absorption area was also designed on the wafer to efficiently absorb incident light. As a representative application, solar cells fabricated using the neutral-colored transparent c-Si substrate showed a power conversion efficiency of up to 12.2%. Therefore, our transparent c-Si solar cells present a unique opportunity to develop next-generation colorless transparent photovoltaics.