Effect of embedding silica nanoparticles and voids in the performance of c-Si solar cells

The effect of embedding nanoentities (silica and voids) on the optical and electrical performance of Si solar cells has been investigated in an attempt to decouple the Anti-Reflection (AR) properties of the standard nitride coated Solar Cells (SCs) and the scattering properties of the nanoentities. The decoupling will ensure the use of the scattering properties of the nanoentities without disturbing the optimized reflection characteristics of a standard SC. Lumerical® Finite Difference Time Domain Solutions software has been used to simulate the optical performance of solar cells after embedding nanoentities in the emitter region. Simulation results indicate that total decoupling of the AR properties and the scattering properties of the nanoentities is not obtained. Electrical performance evaluation of the system reveals a substantial relative improvement (1.7%) in the efficiency of thick (200 μm) SCs which further increases for thin (2 μm) film cells (23%) when 100 nm radius nanovoids having 30% area cov...