Journal
ACS APPLIED MATERIALS & INTERFACES
Volume 8, Issue 17, Pages 10929-10936Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b02194
Keywords
thin-film solar cells; flexible; nanopillar membrane; broadband and omnidirectional performances; shallow dent arrays
Funding
- Science & Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality [14JC1492900]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [61474128, 61475109, 11204205, 11174308, 61274056]
- Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences [2013302]
- Youth Innovation Fund for Interdisciplinary Research of SARI [Y426475234]
- Hong Kong Innovation Technology Commission project [ITS/117/13]
- Hong Kong Research Grant Council General Research Fund [612113]
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Three-dimensional (3-D) structures have triggered tremendous interest for thin-film solar cells since they can dramatically reduce the material usage and incident light reflection. However, the high aspect ratio feature of some 3-D structures leads to deterioration of internal electric field and carrier collection capability, which reduces device power conversion efficiency (PCE). Here, we report high performance flexible thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells with a unique and effective light trapping scheme. In this device structure, a polymer nanopillar membrane is attached on top of a device, which benefits broadband and omnidirectional performances, and a 3-D nanostructure with shallow dent arrays underneath serves as a back reflector on flexible titanium (Ti) foil resulting in an increased optical path length by exciting hybrid optical modes. The efficient light management results in 42.7% and 41.7% remarkable improvements of short-circuit current density and overall efficiency, respectively. Meanwhile, an excellent flexibility has been achieved as PCE remains 97.6% of the initial efficiency even after 10 000 bending cycles. This unique device structure can also be duplicated for other flexible photovoltaic devices based on different active materials such as CdTe, Cu(In,Ga)Se-2 (CIGS), organohalide lead perovskites, and so forth.
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