Optical scattering modeling of etched ZnO:Al superstrates and device simulation studies of a-Si:H solar cells with different texture morphologies

Transparent conductive oxide (TCO) materials have been widely used as the front electrodes of thin-film amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells. To improve the performance of solar cells, textured front TCO is required as the optical layer which effectively scatters the incoming light and thus enhances the photon absorption within the device. One promising TCO material is aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO), which is most commonly prepared by magnetron sputtering. After deposition, sputtered AZO films are typically wet-chemically etched using diluted hydrochloric (HCl) or hydrofluoric (HF) acid to obtain rough surface morphologies. In this paper, we report the effects of a textured AZO front electrode on the performance of a-Si:H solar cells based on optical scattering modeling and electrical device simulations, involving four different AZO surface morphologies. The simulated light scattering behaviors indicate that a better textured surface not only scatters more light, but also allows more light get transmitted into the absorber (similar to 90% of visible light), due to greatly reduced front reflection by the rough surface. Device simulation results show that the two-step AZO texturing process should give improved a-Si: H solar cell performance, with an enhanced short-circuit current density of 16.5 mA/cm(2), which leads to a high photovoltaic (PV) efficiency of 9.9%. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America