Combining randomly textured surfaces and photonic crystals for the photon management in thin film microcrystalline silicon solar cells

Photon management aims at optimizing the solar cell efficiency by, e.g., incorporating supporting optical nanostructures for absorption enhancement. Their geometrical design, however, is usually a compromise since requirements in different spectral domains need to be accommodated. This issue can be mitigated if multiple optical nanostructures are integrated. Here, we present a photon management scheme that combines the benefits of a randomly textured surface and an opaline photonic crystal. Moreover, upon considering the device with an increasing complexity, we show that a structure that respects the mutual fabrication constraints has the best performance, i.e., a device where the photonic crystal is not perfect but to some extent amorphous as enforced by the presence of the texture.