1. Application of metal nanowire networks on hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film solar cells
- Author
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Guofu Hou, Min Gu, Shouyi Xie, Baohua Jia, and Peizhuan Chen
- Subjects
Amorphous silicon ,Fabrication ,Materials science ,Bioengineering ,Nanotechnology ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,01 natural sciences ,Polymer solar cell ,law.invention ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,law ,Solar cell ,General Materials Science ,Electrical and Electronic Engineering ,business.industry ,Mechanical Engineering ,General Chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,0104 chemical sciences ,Amorphous solid ,Indium tin oxide ,chemistry ,Mechanics of Materials ,Electrode ,Optoelectronics ,0210 nano-technology ,business ,Layer (electronics) - Abstract
We demonstrate the application of metal nanowire (NW) networks as a transparent electrode on hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) solar cells. We first systematically investigate the optical performances of the metal NW networks on a-Si:H solar cells in different electrode configurations through numerical simulations to fully understand the mechanisms to guide the experiments. The theoretically optimized configuration is discovered to be metal NWs sandwiched between a 40 nm indium tin oxide (ITO) layer and a 20 nm ITO layer. The overall performances of the solar cells integrated with the metal NW networks are experimentally studied. It has been found the experimentally best performing NW integrated solar cell deviates from the theoretically predicated design due to the performance degradation induced by the fabrication complicity. A 6.7% efficiency enhancement was achieved for the solar cell with metal NW network integrated on top of a 60 nm thick ITO layer compared to the cell with only the ITO layer due to enhanced electrical conductivity by the metal NW network.
- Published
- 2016