Optical simulation of external quantum efficiency spectra of CuIn_(1-x)Ga_xSe_2 solar cells from spectroscopic ellipsometry inputs

Applications of in-situ and ex-situ spectroscopic ellipsometry （SE） are presented for the development of parametric expressions that define the real and imaginary parts （ε1, ε2） of the complex dielectric function spectra of thin film solar cell components. These spectra can then be utilized to analyze the structure of complete thin film solar cells. Optical and structural/compositional models of complete solar cells developed through least squares regression analysis of the SE data acquired for the complete cells enable simulations of external quantum efficiency （EQE） without the need for variable parameters. Such simulations can be compared directly with EQE measurements. From these comparisons, it becomes possible to understand in detail the origins of optical and electronic gains and losses in thin film photovoltaics （PC） technologies and, as a result, the underlying performance limitations. In fact, optical losses that occur when above-bandgap photons are not absorbed in the active layers can be distinguished from electronic losses when electron-hole pairs generated in the active layers are not collected. This overall methodology has been applied to copper indium-gallium diselenide （Culn1-xGaxSe2; CIGS） solar cells, a key commercialized thin film PV technology. CIGS solar cells with both standard thickness （〉2 μm） and thin （〈1 μm） absorber layers are studied by applying SE to obtain inputs for EQE simulations and enabling comparisons of simulated and measured EQE spectra. SE data analysis is challenging for CIGS material components and solar cells because of the need to develop an appropriate （ε1, ε2） database for the CIGS alloys and to extract absorber layer Ga profiles for accurate structural/compositional models. For cells with standard thickness absorbers, excellent agreement is found between the simulated and measured EQE, the latter under the assumption of 100% collection from the active layers, which include the CIGS bulk and CIGS/CdS heterojunction interface layers. For cells with thin absorbers, however, an observed difference between the simulated and measured EQE can be attributed to losses via carrier recombination within a- 0.15 μm thickness of CIGS adjacent to the Mo back contact. By introducing a carrier collection probability profile into the simulation, much closer agreement is obtained between the simulated and measured EQE. In addition to the single spot capability demonstrated in this study, ex-situ SE can be applied as well to generate high resolution maps of thin film multilayer structure, component layer properties and their profiles, as well as short-circuit current density predictions. Such mapping is possible due to the high measurement speed of 〈1 s per （ , 4） spectra achievable by the multichannel ellipsometer.

Design of periodic metal-insulator-metal waveguide back structures for the enhancement of light absorption in thin-film solar cells

To increase the absorption in a thin layer of absorbing material （amorphous silicon, a-Si）, a light trapping design is presented. The designed structure incorporates periodic metal-insulator-metal waveguides to enhance the optical path length of light within the solar cells. The new design can result in broadband optical absorption enhancement not only for transverse magnetic （TM）-polarized light, but also for transverse electric （TE）-polarized light. No plasmonic modes can be excited in TE-polarization, but because of the coupling into the a-Si planar waveguide guiding modes and the diffraction of light by the bottom periodic structures into higher diffraction orders, the total absorption in the active region is also increased. The results from rigorous coupled wave analysis show that the overall optical absorption in the active layer can be greatly enhanced by up to 40%. The designed structures presented in this paper can be integrated with back contact technology to potentially produce high-efficiency thin-film solar cell devices.

金属纳米栅格薄膜等离激元太阳能电池的优化设计

为提高薄膜太阳能电池的性能,运用时域有限差分和粒子群优化算法,对薄膜太阳能电池金属纳米栅格的结构参数进行了优化设计。优化后,金属纳米栅格薄膜太阳能电池的短路电流与无金属纳米栅格太阳能电池相比提高了39%。对不同极化情况下电池光的吸收和量子效率的提高进行了分析,分析结果表明,经金属纳米栅格耦合进入吸收层的导波模、金属纳米栅格表面等离激元以及吸收层中的法布里-珀罗共振导致了薄膜太阳能电池性能的提高。