Performance enhancement of amorphous silicon solar cell using 1D photonic crystal as back reflector

In the present work, design and optimization of a highly reflective light-trapping nanostructures were remarkably enhanced the efficiency of thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si) solar cells by using rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) method. One-dimensional photonic crystal (1DPC) is also known as distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs) used as backside reflector. The property of photonic crystal has depends on the various parameters such as refractive index, thickness, center wavelength (lambda c) and the selection of the materials. In this work, the reflectivity of DBRs (Si/SiO2) was determined by various center (incidence) wavelength (lambda c) such as 400, 600, and 800 nm. The maximum reflectance of 100% achieved by 5DBR alternative layers (or stacks). The proposed solar cell consists of anti-reflection coating-ITO, top-grating (ITO), absorber layer (a-Si) and an optimized DBRs. Further, investigated the careful design optimization and presented the enhanced light trapping mechanism within 40 nm thick a-Si absorber region. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.