Effect of temperature on performance of nanostructured silicon thin-film solar cells

Abstract It is well known that temperature is a key factor affecting the performance of solar photovoltaic cells. The temperature affects the light-trapping ability of the cell surfaces, displacement and recombination of minor carriers in the cells. This paper is to examine how the temperature affects the conversion performance of nanostructured silicon thin-film solar cells by means of the photoelectric coupling model. Two typical nanostructures such as nano-pillars (NPillars) and nano-holes (NHoles) are involved. The effects of temperature-dependent optical and electrical properties on the cell performance are investigated. It is found that the effect of increase in temperature is positive for optical properties whereas that is negative for electrical properties and the slight increase of optical absorption cannot compensate the dramatic decrease of electrical loss in nanostructured silicon thin-film solar cells as the temperature increases. Consequently, the photon-electric conversion efficiency decreases with the increase in temperature.