Nonlinear laser lithography for photonic design of si solar cells

Abstract

Nowadays Si-based solar cell (SC) remains the main source of solar energy in the world due to low cost of material and relatively simple, industrially acceptable technology. Despite of significant progress on increasing efficiency of these devices (the best laboratory samples demonstrated efficiency as much as 43.5%), for most of industrially manufactured SC’s the efficiency remains in the range of 10–18% [1]. A promising way to minimize thermodynamic losses for high efficiency Si-based photovoltaic devices, is photonic design of the device surfaces. The last one causes light trapping into the device, due to light interaction with micro- nano-structured surfaces, thus increasing effective light path interaction. However, the most of proposed methods for Si surface modification do not match industrial production requirements: such as fast manufacturing, environmental issues, and low cost per watt for final devices.