Simulation study of amorphous Si solar cell with conducting anti-reflection coating and plasmonic nanostructured back reflector

This work is comprised of simulation results of amorphous Si (a-Si) solar cell, in which ITO was used as an anti-reflection coating (ARC). The thickness of ITO was optimized (65 nm) to achieve better optical absorption in a-Si in the spectral region of 350-800 nm. The absorption and reflection spectra of the solar cell using ITO and SiNx as an ARC were compared, and the results were found to be similar. Further, to enhance the light absorption in a-Si, silver nano hemispherical structures were used on top of the metallic back reflector. It was found that the average absorption by the a-Si was improved to ~80% using ITO as an ARC and hemispherical nanostructure on top of the back reflector.