Optical confinement of the intermediate layer between Si and alumina substrate in thin film Si solar cells

Enhancement of the optical confinement effect by an intermediate layer (IML) between Si and alumina substrate in thin film Si solar cells was studied. The dependence of the optical confinement effect on refractive index of the IML and on thickness of Si was separately investigated by hemispherical reflectance measurement of the following two series of samples. In the first case, SiOxNy, SiNx or TiO2 was deposited as the IML in the multilayer, Si/IML/alumina. In the second case, Si layers with different thicknesses were formed. The study showed that in certain conditions the IML could enhance the optical absorption of Si layer in thin film Si solar cells. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.