Effect of anti-reflection coating on the performance of silicon solar cells with nanocrystalline quantum dots downshifting film

Abstract

This experiment explores the effect of lithium fluoride (LiF) antireflection coating (ARC) on the performance of commercial silicon solar cells with mist deposited nanocrystalline quantum dots (NQD) downshifting film. The effect of blanket deposited and patterned NQD and ARC films is investigated. Significant improvement of the performance of cells with ARC is observed. Specifically, 67% increase in the average external quantum efficiency of silicon solar cells covered with AR coating in the UV range of 300–400 nm is noted. The micropatterning of NQD/LiF films improves light trapping inside the cell and enhances power conversion efficiency (PCE) of the cell by 19.5%. Overall, this experiment demonstrates that the ARC formation on top of the mist deposited NQD downshifting film results in measurable improvement in the performance of the commercial silicon solar cells.