Non-metallic, manufacturable arrays for high performance single junction thin film nc-Si solar cells

Studies of the use of metallic gratings and of metallic nano-element arrays for light trapping in thin film solar cells, undertaken by a number of research groups, have generated considerable interest. Recently we have shown that at least comparable performance enhancement is attainable with readily imprintable, non-metallic nano-element arrays. Here we apply this non-metallic nano-element array concept to single junction nano-crystalline silicon (nc-Si) solar cells and demonstrate that a nominally 800nm nc-Si absorber can yield a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 29.2mA/cm
²
. This is an increase of 55% over the short circuit current density of the corresponding planar control nc-Si cell. These Jsc results point to a design optimization path that can lead to very manufacturable thin film single junction nc-Si cells with conversion efficiencies greater than 15%.