Influence of ZnSe Surface Coatings for Enhancing the Performance of Multicrystalline Silicon Solar Cells

The current research effort focused on enhancing the power conversion performance of silicon solar cells by minimizing the scattering of incident photons on the solar cell surface. This can be achieved through antireflective thin-film coatings. The main purpose of antireflective coatings is to minimize the reflection of incident light radiation. Silicon solar cells with antireflective thin-film coatings exhibit better light transmittance, and hence power conversion efficiency is improved. Metal chalcogenides are materials with a wider energy band gap and possess better electrical and optical properties. This study aims at using zinc selenide (ZnSe), a metal chalcogenide, as an antireflective coating material. ZnSe was synthesized through a room-temperature thermal evaporation technique. Further, coating of ZnSe on the silicon solar cell was done using an electrospraying technique. The optimal solar cell sample (D3) with thickness of 1.32 mu m exhibited maximum transmittance of 95.8% in the visible spectrum. The electrical resistivity of the D3 sample under neodymium radiation was noted as 3.43 x 10(-5) ohm m, which was lower than other coated samples. The output efficiency of the sample was found to be 19.95%, which was a 4.58% improvement over pristine solar cells. Based on the observations, it is evident that the synthesized ZnSe is a promising coating material for controlling reflection loss and increasing power conversion efficiency.

Automated summary

The research focuses on enhancing the power conversion efficiency of silicon solar cells by using antireflective thin-film coatings. The study explores the use of zinc selenide as a coating material to improve light transmittance and increase the solar cell's output efficiency.