What is it about?
A significant fraction of light is reflected at the surface of a solar cell, and this light can't be used to generate electricity. We found that coating a solar cell with a film of zinc oxide, then texturing it using a simple acid etch can dramatically reduce this reflection and increase the efficiency of the solar cell.
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Why is it important?
Our findings show that a relatively simple and scalable process can give a significant boost to a solar cell's efficiency. While we demonstrate it using one type of thin film photovoltaic, copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS), the method is generally applicable to other types of solar cells as well.
Perspectives
Much of what I and my colleagues work on require relatively complex and challenging processing steps. This work was interesting in that the processing was very simple - depositing a zinc oxide film using the right deposition conditions followed by a timed etch in a dilute acid. This simplicity is gratifying because it makes the method practical to implement on a larger scale.
Jesse Frantz
U.S. Naval Research Laboratory
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Microstructured ZnO coatings combined with antireflective layers for light management in photovoltaic devices, Progress in Photovoltaics Research and Applications, July 2016, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1002/pip.2804.
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