Performance of thin silicon solar cells with a quasi-monocrystalline porous silicon layer on the rear side

The present study employs porous silicon (PS) or quasi-monocrystalline porous silicon (QMPS) as a reflector material on the rear side. It presents an analytical model that simulates the performance of n(+)-p-p(+) thin silicon solar cell with a QMPS layer on the rear side. The development of the model involves the formulation of a complete set of equations for the photocurrent density that is then solved analytically in the base region, including the photocurrent generated under the effect of the light reflected by QMPS layer. This also takes the contribution of the back p(+)-region (back surface field) to the generated photocurrent into consideration. The enhancements brought by the thin film QMPS with regard to photovoltaic (PV) parameters are then investigated and compared to those brought by the conventional silicon solar cell. Moreover, the effect of the QMPS layer on the current-voltage characteristics J-V and the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of thin silicon solar cells are simulated by means of AFORS-HET software. These simulations show that the improvement of the PV parameters is due to an increase in the transport parameters of minority carriers in the p-region.