Enhanced efficiency of graphene-silicon Schottky junction solar cell through inverted pyramid arrays texturation

doi:10.1016/j.jmst.2018.04.008

Abstract

Abstract:

Nanostructures of silicon are gradually becoming hot candidate due to outstanding capability for trapping light and improving conversion efficiency of solar cell. In this paper, silicon nanowires (SiNWs) and silicon inverted pyramid arrays (SiIPs) were introduced on surface of Gr-Si solar cell through silver and copper-catalyzed chemical etching, respectively. The effects of SiNWs and SiIPs on carrier lifetime, optical properties and efficiency of Gr-SiNWs and Gr-SiIPs solar cells were systematically analyzed. The results show that the inverted pyramid arrays have more excellent ability for balancing antireflectance loss and surface area enlargement. The power conversion efficiency (PCE) and carrier lifetime of Gr-SiIPs devices respectively increase by 62% and 34% by comparing with that of Gr-SiNWs solar cells. Finally, the Gr-SiIPs cell with PCE of 5.63% was successfully achieved through nitric acid doping. This work proposes a new strategy to introduce the inverted pyramid arrays for improving the performance of Gr-Si solar cells.

Key words: Graphene-Si solar cell, Silver/copper-assisted chemical etching, Silicon nanowires, Silicon inverted pyramid arrays

Jiajia Qiu, Yudong Shang, Xiuhua Chen, Shaoyuan Li, Wenhui Ma, Xiaohan Wan, Jia Yang, Yun Lei, Zhengjie Chen. Enhanced efficiency of graphene-silicon Schottky junction solar cell through inverted pyramid arrays texturation[J]. J. Mater. Sci. Technol., 2018, 34(11): 2197-2204.

Figures/Tables 15

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration for fabrication of Gr-SiNWs and Gr-SiIPs Schottky junction solar cell.

Fig. 2. (a) SEM diagram of graphene; (b) Raman spectrum of graphene measured on SiO2/Si substrate.

Fig. 3. Cross-sectional SEM image of (a) 1 μm, (b) 3 μm, (c) 6 μm and (d) 10 μm Silicon nanowires.

Fig. 4. (a) Reflectance and (b) absorbance of silicon nanowires with different lengths.

Fig. 5. (a) Illuminates J-V characteristics curves. (b) Dark J-V characteristics curves. (c) Dark lnJ-V curves. (d) Plots of dV/d(lnI) versus I for Gr-SiNWs Schottky junction solar cell.

Table 1 Performance parameters of Gr-SiNWs Schottky junction solar cells.

SiNWs	V_oc (V)	J_sc (mA/cm²)	FF (%)	PCE (%)	n	Φ	R_s
1 μm	0.32	31.53	21.7	2.16	3.92	0.72	37.04
3 μm	0.32	28.98	19.5	1.78	5.03	0.73	51.89
6 μm	0.34	22.94	16.7	1.29	5.38	0.74	62.96
10 μm	0.27	11.62	21.2	0.67	5.52	0.75	65.09

Fig. 6. Top view and cross-sectional SEM image of (a) 1 μm and (b) 10 μm silicon nanowires.

Fig. 7. Minority carrier lifetimes of silicon nanowires with different lengths.

Fig. 8. SEM to p-view image and cross-sectional SEM image of SiIPs solar cells.

Fig. 9. Comparison of (a) reflectance and (b) absorbance of SiIPs and SiNWs.

Fig. 10. (a) Illuminated J-V characteristics curves. (b) Dark J-V characteristics curves. (c) The dark lnJ-V curves. (d) Plots of dV/d(lnI) versus I for Gr-SiNWs and Gr-SiNWs Schottky junction solar cell.

Table 2 Performance parameters of Gr-SiNWs (1 μm) and Gr-SiIPs Schottky junction solar cells.

	V_oc (V)	J_sc (mA/cm²)	FF (%)	PCE (%)	n	Φ	R_s
SiNWs	0.32	31.53	21.7	2.16	3.92	0.72	37.04
SiIPs	0.35	36.75	27.4	3.50	4.08	0.75	23.72

Fig. 11. SEM image of (a) Gr-SiNWs and (b) Gr-SiIPs Schottky junction solar cells.

Fig. 12. Comparison of minority carrier lifetime of planar Si, SiNWs (1 μm, with CH3 passivation) and SiIPs solar cells.

Fig. 13. Illuminated J-V characteristics curves of HNO3 doped Gr-SiNWs (1 μm, with CH3 passivation) and Gr-SiIPs Schottky junction solar cell.

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