Cost-effective solar cells with earth abundant transparent materials

Traditional antireflection coating (ARCs) are used to reduce the reflectivity and improve the efficiency of solar cells. However, traditional ARCs have limitations of being wavelength- and angle-dependent. It is also required to employ expensive, complicated fabrication processes. In an effort to realize cost-effective solar cells, we will show how inexpensive transparent materials, such as PET, can improve optical and electrical characteristics of Si solar cells. We created an incoherent light propagation model to see the effect of the transparent material atop Si solar cells. It is found that we can reduce the reflectivity by more than 20 % with the material having a refractive index of 1.5 to 2.5. With the improved optical characteristics, we also found that the current generation can be improved by 24 % when the material of a refractive index of 2.0 is applied. In this presentation, we will also discuss the method to further improve the optical and electrical characteristics.