Influence of black silicon surfaces on the performance of back-contacted back silicon heterojunction solar cells.

The influence of different black silicon (b-Si) front side textures prepared by inductively coupled reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE) on the performance of back-contacted back silicon heterojunction (BCB-SHJ) solar cells is investigated in detail regarding their optical performance, black silicon surface passivation and internal quantum efficiency. Under optimized conditions the effective minority carrier lifetime measured on black silicon surfaces passivated with Al(2)O(3) can be higher than lifetimes measured for the SiO(2)/SiN(x) passivation stack used in the reference cells with standard KOH textures. However, to outperform the electrical current of silicon back-contact cells, the black silicon back-contact cell process needs to be optimized with aspect to chemical and thermal stability of the used dielectric layer combination on the cell.

Automated spray coating process for the fabrication of large-area artificial opals on textured substrates.

3D photonic crystals, such as opals, have been shown to have a high potential to increase the efficiency of solar cells by enabling advanced light management concepts. However, methods which comply with the demands of the photovoltaic industry for integration of these structures, i. e. the fabrication in a low-cost, fast, and large-scale manner, are missing up to now. In this work, we present the spray coating of a colloidal suspension on textured substrates and subsequent drying. We fabricated opaline films of much larger lateral dimensions and in much shorter times than what is possible using conventional opal fabrication methods.