Issue 20, 2012
From the journal:

Nanoscale

An efficient broadband and omnidirectional light-harvesting scheme employing a hierarchical structure based on a ZnO nanorod/Si3N4-coated Si microgroove on 5-inch single crystalline Si solar cells†

Chin-An Lin,a   Kun-Yu Lai,ab   Wei-Cheng Lienac  and  Jr-Hau He*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Graduate Institute of Photonics and Optoelectronics, and Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC
E-mail: jhhe@cc.ee.ntu.edu.tw
Fax: +886-2-2367-7467
Tel: +886-2-3366-9646

b Department of Optics and Photonics, National Central University, Chung-Li, Taiwan, ROC

c Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA

Abstract

We employ a ZnO nanorod/Si3N4-coated Si microgroove-based hierarchical structure (HS) for a light-harvesting scheme in 5 inch single crystalline Si solar cells. ZnO nanorods and Si microgrooves were fabricated by a simple and scalable aqueous process. The excellent light-harvesting characteristics of the HS, such as broadband working ranges and omnidirectionality have been demonstrated using external quantum efficiencies and reflectance measurements. The solar cells with the hierarchical surface exhibit excellent photovoltaic characteristics, i.e., a short-circuit current (JSC) of 38.45 mA cm−2, open-circuit voltage of 609 mV and conversion efficiency of 14.04%. As incident angles increase from 0° to 60°, only 5.3% JSC loss is achieved by employing the hierarchical surface, demonstrating the enhanced omnidirectional photovoltaic performances, also confirmed by the theoretical analysis. A viable scheme for broadband and omnidirectional light harvesting using the HS employing microscale/nanoscale surface textures on single crystalline Si solar cells has been demonstrated.

Graphical abstract: An efficient broadband and omnidirectional light-harvesting scheme employing a hierarchical structure based on a ZnO nanorod/Si3N4-coated Si microgroove on 5-inch single crystalline Si solar cells

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2NR32358C
Article type
Paper
Submitted
16 Aug 2012
Accepted
21 Aug 2012
First published
29 Aug 2012

Nanoscale, 2012,4, 6520-6526

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An efficient broadband and omnidirectional light-harvesting scheme employing a hierarchical structure based on a ZnO nanorod/Si3N4-coated Si microgroove on 5-inch single crystalline Si solar cells

C. Lin, K. Lai, W. Lien and J. He, Nanoscale, 2012, 4, 6520 DOI: 10.1039/C2NR32358C

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