Light management of solar cells by implementation of nano/microstructures

Abstract

Research on the improvement of the photoelectric conversion efficiency of solar cells is always the focus. In this paper, an efficient anti-reflection micro/nanostructure is proposed to improve the conversion efficiency of the solar cell. Graded effective refractive index theory is used to achieve the anti-reflection effect while the simulation model is established by FDTD. A specific periodic nanostructure is obtained, which can achieve a good anti-reflection effect. According to the simulation model, the reflectivity of the solar cell is reduced by 0.85% and the transmittance is increased by 0.85% in the band range of 200 nm to 1000 nm. Specifically, high anti-reflection phenomena are obtained in the band range of ultraviolet and blue light, in which the reflectivity is reduced by 1.56% and the transmittance is increased by 1.55%. Based on the simulation results, the array nanostructure is produced by etching the self-assembled polystyrene (PS) microspheres. Finally, the required structure is formed on the silicon wafer by nanoimprinting and etching technology. The reflectivity of 2.8% is obtained on silicon, which can potentially increase the opto-electrical performance of the solar cell.