Two-Dimensional Nanostructure Anti-Reflection Enhancing Performance Silicon Solar Cells

Abstract

Embedding an anti-reflection layer to reduce light reflection and suppress charge recombination is a key factor in increasing absorption and power conversion efficiency (PCE). Nanostructures are ideal as anti-reflection materials due to their typically superior optical properties. The shape and size of these nanostructures are important, as optimizing them can enhance and regulate light propagation, optical absorption, and light trapping. In this paper, absorption and electrical calculations were performed using Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) and CHARGE simulations. We demonstrate the effectiveness of optimizing the shape (nanodisk, sphere, and hemisphere), aspect ratio, diameter, lattice constant, and thickness of the nanostructure. These modifications significantly improved the performance of silicon solar cells, resulting in a PCE increase by 15.27%. The optimal PCE was obtained from modifying anti-reflection using a nanodisk structure with a diameter of 300 nm, a lattice constant of 600 nm, and a thickness of 187.5 nm. The high performance is demonstrated in both optical and electrical properties, with an absorption intensity of 97% and J_sc of 49.77 mA/cm². These superior results suggest that the proposed TiO₂ nanodisk-based silicon solar cells have great potential to enhance silicon solar cell performance.