Back Cover: Optimization of thin film silicon solar cells on highly textured substrates (Phys. Status Solidi A 8/2011)

Efficient light trapping in thin film silicon solar devices is typically realized using textured substrates. However, the growth dynamics of the thin silicon layers on rough substrates can result into local current drains, degrading the electrical performances and reliability. M. Despeisse et al. (pp. 1863–1868) show that the optimization of the active-layer deposition processes and the implementation of doped silicon-rich silicon oxide layers can lead to a higher resilience of the solar cell to the substrate texture. An a-Si:H/µc-Si:H tandem cell developed on a highly textured substrate with a stabilized efficiency of 11.3% is reported, using a relatively thin µc-Si:H absorber material (∼1 µm), demonstrating that this approach has a high potential for lowering thin film silicon production costs. The presented developments are of high interest for an improved integration of nano-photonic structures optimum for advanced light trapping into functional high performance solar cell devices.