THIN-FILM SILICON SOLAR CELLS: STABILITY AND LIGHT TRAPPING

Thin-film silicon solar cell technology is one of the promising photovoltaic technologies for delivering low-cost solar electricity. Today the thin-film silicon PV market (402 MWp produced in 2008) is dominated by amorphous silicon based modules; however it is expected that the tandem amorphous/microcrystalline silicon mo-dules will take over in near future. The properties of silicon films grown from the mixture of hydrogen and silane will be discussed and the solar cell behavior will be presented. In order to increase the absorption in thin absorber layers novel approaches for photon management inside solar cells are developed. In this article i) optimal surface texture of the electrodes for introducing efficient light scattering and ii) development and implementation of optically-active layers for enhanced reflection at the back contact are presented.