New Numerical Method to Calculate the True Optical Absorption of Hydrogenated Nanocrystalline Silicon Thin Films

The enhanced optical absorption measured by Constant Photocurrent Method (CPM) of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon thin films is due mainly to bulk and/or surface light scattering effects. A new numerical method is presented to calculate both true optical absorption and scattering coefficient from CPM absorption spectra of nanotextured nano-crystalline silicon films. Bulk and surface light scattering contributions can be unified through the correlation obtained between the scattering coefficient and surface roughness obtained using our method.