Development of high-efficiency tandem silicon solar cells on W-textured Zinc oxide-coated soda-lime glass substrates

摘要

In this study, we have investigated the effect of refractive index of Soda-lime glass (SLG) substrates on its surface roughness after being etched by Reactive Ion Etching (RIE). It was found that there was a relationship between the refractive index of the glass and etched surface roughness. Higher roughness was obtained on SLG with lower refractive index. Based on this finding, we can easily control the glass etching process and achieve its good repeatability. Furthermore, ZnO films have been deposited on this etched SLG to achieve W-textured TCO substrates. As a result, a-Si:H/ µc-Si:H tandem solar cell fabricated on this developed substrate has a high efficiency of 12.40% showing that this new morphology control of glass etching is a promising method for development of high-efficiency thin-film solar cell.