Picosecond laser patterning for ultrathin spectrally selective solar mini-modules with transparent metal-oxide multilayer electrodes

Semitransparent solar cells featuring spectrally selective light transmission have been developed for agrivoltaic applications. One novel approach for this technology is the combination of a metal-oxide multilayer electrode with an ultrathin germanium solar cell. However, the combination of this electrode possessing multiple thin silver layers with the ultrathin absorber imposes additional challenges for the laser scribing processes that are used for the module integration. In this work, we report on a picosecond laser patterning approach for the monolithic interconnection of a spectrally selective solar cell on mini-module level. We found, that a green (532 nm) and an infrared laser (1064 nm) are suitable for the scribing of the metal-oxide multilayer electrode and the ultrathin absorber. Our approach is an important step towards large scale module fabrication for versatile agrivoltaic applications.

Automated summary

Semitransparent solar cells with spectrally selective light transmission have been developed for agrivoltaic applications. The combination of a metal-oxide multilayer electrode with an ultrathin germanium solar cell is a novel approach for this technology. A picosecond laser patterning method has been used for the monolithic interconnection of this spectrally selective solar cell at the mini-module level.