Optical-Electronic Analysis of the Intrinsic Behaviors of Nanostructured Ultrathin Crystalline Silicon Solar Cells

Light trapping and antireflection via nano-texturing are prominent methods for improved efficiency in solar cells. We present a combined three-dimensional optical and electronic simulation to calculate the intrinsic limits on the efficiency in ultrathin nanotextured crystalline silicon solar cells. Our simulation incorporates the fundamental loss mechanisms including Auger recombination and surface recombination. The simulation shows that an optimized 3 pm thick structure with double-sided nanocone gratings yields an efficiency of 24.9% with a short-circuit current density of 36.6 mA/cm(2) and an open-circuit voltage of 0.79 V. We also introduce an analytic model that describes the electronic properties. This model significantly simplifies the optical-electronic analysis of nanostructured solar cells.