Glancing angle deposited ITO films for efficiency enhancement of a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem thin film solar cells

Indium tin oxide (ITO) thin films with relatively high transparency and low absorption are prepared by glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method and their effect on the device performance of a-Si:H/mu cSi:H tandem thin film solar cells is theoretically investigated by applying the experimentally measured physical data of the fabricated films to the simulation parameters. The GLAD of ITO produces inclined porous columnar nanostructures due to the atomic shadowing effect. With increasing the incident flux angle, the columns are increasingly inclined, thus resulting in the improved transmission property as well as the decrease of the refractive index and extinction coefficient because of enhanced porosity within the film. Furthermore, the antireflection characteristics are improved over a wide wavelength range of 300-1100 nm. For a-Si:H/mu cSi:H tandem thin film solar cell structure incorporated with the 0 degrees ITO/80 degrees ITO bi-layer structure, the conversion efficiency (eta) of 13.6% is obtained from simulation under AM1.5g illumination, indicating an efficiency improvement compared to the device with the 0 degrees ITO/0 degrees ITO bi-layer structure (i.e. eta = 12.58%). (C) 2011 Optical Society of America