Enhancing silicon solar cell efficiency with double layer antireflection coating

Authors: MOHAMED MEDHAT, EL-SAYED EL-ZAIAT, SAMY FARAG, GAMAL YOUSSEF, REDA ALKHADRY

Abstract: Antireflection coating on silicon, a high refractive index substrate, was theoretically investigated. The effects of antireflection coating on electrical parameters such as the short circuit current, open circuit voltage, maximum current density, maximum voltage, maximum power, power density, and conversion efficiency of the solar cell were simulated. Various previous works in which solar cell efficiencies were investigated after applying double layer antireflection coating (DLARC) were reviewed. Ti$_{2}$O$_{3}$ and MgF$_{2}$ were then applied in a DLARC design, taking into consideration the refractive index dispersion of the two materials. The results were compared with other works in the solar spectral range (400-1200 nm). As a result of simulation, the reflectance on the surface was reduced from 30.2% to 2.37%. Moreover, about 22% conversion efficiency and 38.6 mA/${{\rm cm}}^{{2}}$ short circuit current density were achieved for a silicon cell with DLARC. These results were compared with the parameters of a cell without coating, one with single layer coating, and one with zero reflectance on the front surface.

Keywords: Antireflection coating, reflectance, external quantum efficiency, solar cell

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