Optical properties of thin-filin silicon solar cells with grating couplers

The effect of grating couplers on the optical properties of silicon thin-film solar cells was studied by a comparison of experimental results with numerical simulations. The thin-film solar cells studied are based on microcrystalline silicon (PC-Si:H) absorber layers of thickness in the micrometer range. To investigate the light propagation in these cells, especially in the red wavelength region, three-dimensional power loss profiles are simulated. The influence of different grating parametres-such as period size, groove height, and shape of the grating-was studied to gain more insight into the light propagation within thin-film silicon solar cells and to determine an optimized light trapping scheme. The effect of the TCO front and TCO back side layer thickness was investigated. The calculated quantum efficiencies and short-circuit current densities are in good agreement with the experimental data. The simulations predict further optimization criteria. Copyright (C) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.