• Current Optics and Photonics
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.375-383
• /
• 2021

We present a simulation method to design antireflection coating (ARCs) for fiber-coupled superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors. Using a finite-element method, the absorptance of the nanowire is calculated for a defined unit-cell structure consisting of a fiber, ARC layer, nanowire absorber, distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror, and air gap. We develop a method to evaluate the uncertainty in absorptance due to the uncontrollable parameter of air-gap distance. The validity of the simulation method is tested by comparison to an experimental realization for a case of single-layer ARC, which results in good agreement. We show finally a double-layer ARC design optimized for a system detection efficiency of higher than 95%, with a reduced uncertainty due to the air-gap distance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2004.07a
• /
• pp.146-149
• /
• 2004

Porous silicon(PS) as an excellent light diffuser can be used as an antireflection layer without other antireflection coating(ARC) materials. PS layers were obtained by electrochemical etching(ECE) anodization of silicon wafers in hydrofluoric acid/ethanol/de-ionized(DI) water solution($HF/EtOH/H_2O$). This technique is based on the selective removal of Si atoms from the sample surface forming a layer of PS with adjustable optical, electrical, and mechanical properties. A PS layer with optimal ARC characteristics was obtained in charge density (Q) of 5.2 $C/cm^2$. The weighted reflectance is reduced from 33 % to 4 % in the wavelength between 400 and 1000 nm. The weighted reflectance with optimized PS layers is much less than that obtained with a commercial SiNx ARC on a potassium hydroxide(KOH) pre-textured multi-crystalline silicon(mc-Si) surface.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.367-370
• /
• 2009

It is important to reduce a reflection of light as a solar cell is device that directly converts the energy of solar radiation to electrical energy in oder to improve efficiency of solar cells. The antireflection coating has proven effective in providing substantial increase in solar cell efficiency. This paper investigates the formation of thin film PSi(porous silicon) layer on the surface of crystalline silicon substrates without other ARC(antirefiection coating) layers. On the other hand the formation of $SO_{2}/SiN_x$ ARC layers on the surface of crystalline silicon substrates. After that, the structure of PSi and $SO_2/SiN_x$ ARC was investigated by SEM and reflectance. The formation of PSi layer and $SO_{2}/SiN_x$ ARC layers on the textured silicon wafer result about 5% in the wavelength region from 0.4 to $1.0{\mu}m$. It is achieved on the textured crystalline silicon solar cell that each efficiency is 14.43%, 16.01%.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.1-6
• /
• 2004

Zinc sulfide is a semiconductor with wide band gap and high refractive index and hence promising material to be used as ARC on commercial silicon solar cells. Uniform deposition of zinc sulfide (ZnS) by using chemical bath deposition (CBD) method over a large area of silicon surface is an emerging field of research because ZnS film can be used as a low cost antireflection coating (ARC). The main problem of the CBD bath process is the huge amount of precipitation that occurs during heterogeneous reaction leading to hamper the rate of deposition as well as uniformity and chemical stoichiometry of deposited film. Molar concentration of thiorea plays an important role in varying the percentage of reflectance and refractive index of as-deposited CBD ZnS film. Desirable rate of film deposition (19.6 ${\AA}$ / min), film uniformity (Std. dev. < 1.8), high value of refractive index (2.35), low reflectance (0.655) have been achieved with proper optimization of ZnS bath. Decrease in refractive index of CBD ZnS film due to high temperature treatment in air ambiance has been pointed out in this paper. Solar cells of conversion efficiency 13.8 ％ have been successfully achieved with a large area (103 mm ${\times}$ 103 mm) mono-crystalline silicon wafers by using CBD ZnS antireflection coating in this modified approach.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2012.03a
• /
• pp.243-247
• /
• 2012

The paper focuses on an anti-reflection (AR) coating deposited by PECVD in silicon solar cell fabrication. AR coating is effective to reduce the reflection of the light on the silicon wafer surface and then increase substantially the solar cell conversion efficiency. In this work, we carried out experiments to optimize double AR coating layer with silicon nitride and silicon oxide for the silicon solar cells. The p-type mono crystalline silicon wafers with $156{\times}156mm^2$ area, 0.5-3 ${\Omega}{\cdot}cm$ resistivity, and $200{\mu}m$ thickness were used. All wafers were textured in KOH solution, doped with $POCl_3$ and removed PSG before ARC process. The optimized thickness of each ARC layer was calculated by theoretical equation. For the double layer of AR coating, silicon nitride layer was deposited first using $SiH_4$ and $NH_3$, and then silicon oxide using $SiH_4$ and $N_2O$. As a result, reflectance of $SiO_2/SiN_x$ layer was lower than single $SiN_x$ and then it resulted in increase of short-circuit current and conversion efficiency. It indicates that the double AR coating layer is necessary to obtain the high efficiency solar cell with PECVD already used in commercial line.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2011.02a
• /
• pp.300-300
• /
• 2011

Si oxidation is a key process in developing silicon devices, such as highly integrated metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) transistors and antireflection-coating (ARC) on solar cell substrate. Many experimental and theoritical studies have been carried out for elucidating oxidation processes and adsorption structure using ab initio total energy and electronic structure calcultaions. However, the initial oxidation processes at step edge on vicinal Si surface have not been studied using the ReaxFF reactive force field. In this work, strucutural change, charge distribution of oxidized Si throughout the depth from Si surface were observed during oxidation processes on vicinal Si(001) surface inclined by $10.5^{\circ}$ of miscut angle toward [100]. Adsorption energys of step edge and flat terrace were calculated to compare the oxidation reaction at step edge and flat terrace on Si surface.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.22 no.7
• /
• pp.616-621
• /
• 2009

Reduction of optical losses in crystalline silicon solar cells by surface modification is one of the most important issues of silicon photovoltaics. Porous Si layers on the front surface of textured Si substrates have been investigated with the aim of improving the optical losses of the solar cells, because an anti-reflection coating(ARC) and a surface passivation can be obtained simultaneously in one process. We have demonstrated the feasibility of a very efficient porous Si ARC layer, prepared by a simple, cost effective, electrochemical etching method. Silicon p-type CZ (100) oriented wafers were textured by anisotropic etching in sodium carbonate solution. Then, the porous Si layers were formed by electrochemical etching in HF solutions. After that, the properties of porous Si in terms of morphology, structure and reflectance are summarized. The structure of porous Si layers was investigated with SEM. The formation of a nanoporous Si layer about 100nm thick on the textured silicon wafer result in a reflectance lower than 5% in the wavelength region from 500 to 900nm. Such a surface modification allows improving the Si solar cell characteristics. An efficiency of 13.4% is achieved on a monocrystalline silicon solar cell using the electrochemical technique.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.28 no.9
• /
• pp.593-597
• /
• 2015

Ni ink for electrohydrodynamic (EHD) continuous jet printing has been developed by using Ni nanoparticles mixed with conhesiveness provider. EHD continuous jet printing was used in order to realize $20{\mu}m$ pattern width. Ink stability was investigated by using Turbi-scan which monitors agglomeration and precipitation of nanoparticles in the ink for three days. The Turbi-scan results showed that the formulated Ni ink had been stable for 3 days without any indication of precipitation across the entire ink. Antireflection coating (ARC) layer in crystalline solar cell wafers was removed by laser ablation technique leading to the formation of 84 grooves where the Ni ink was printed by EHD continuous jet printing. The printability and microstructure of EHD-jet-printed Ni lines were investigated by using optical and electron microscopes. 84 Ni lines with the width less than $20{\mu}m$ were successfully printed by one-time printing without any misalignment and fill the laser-ablated ARC grooves.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
• /
• v.13 no.2
• /
• pp.29-35
• /
• 2014

In this study general solar cell production process was complemented, with research on improvement of solar cell efficiency through surface structure and thermal annealing process. Firstly, to form the pyramid structure, the saw damage removal (SDR) processed surface was undergone texturing process with reactive ion etching (RIE). Then, for the formation of smooth pyramid structure to facilitate uniform doping and electrode formation, the surface was etched with HND(HF : HNO3 : D.I. water=5 : 100 : 100) solution. Notably, due to uniform doping the leakage current decreased greatly. Also, for the enhancement and maintenance of minority carrier lifetime, antireflection coating thermal annealing was done. To maintain this increased lifetime, front electrode was formed through Au plating process without high temperature firing process. Through these changes in two processes, the leakage current effect could be decreased and furthermore, the conversion efficiency could be increased. Therefore, compared to the general solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 15.89%, production of high efficiency solar cell with a conversion efficiency of 17.24% was made possible.

• Advances in nano research
• /
• v.3 no.3
• /
• pp.133-141
• /
• 2015

Influence of Ag nanoparticles on optical and photovoltaic properties of, silicon substrates, silicon solar cells and glass have been investigated. Silver nanoparticles have been fabricated by evaporation of thin Ag layers followed by the thermal annealing. The surface plasmon resonance peak was observed in the absorbance spectrum at 470 nm of glass with deposited silver nanoparticles. It is demonstrated that deposition of silver nanoparticles on silicon substrates was accompanied with a significant decrease in reflectance at the wavelength 360-1100 nm and increase of the absorption at wavelengths close to the band gap for Si substrates. We studied influence of Ag nanoparticles on photovoltaic characteristics of silicon solar cells without and with common use antireflection coating (ARC). It is shown that silver nanoparticles deposited onto the front surface of the solar cells without ARC led to increase in the photocurrent density by 39% comparing to cells without Ag nanoparticles. Contrary to this, solar cells with Ag nanoparticles deposited on front surface with ARC discovered decrease in photocurrent density. The improved performance of investigated cells was attributed to Ag-plasmonic excitations that reduce the reflectance from the silicon surface and ultimately leads to the enhanced light absorption in the cell. This study showed possibility of application of Ag nanoparticles for the improvement of the conversion efficiency of waferbased silicon solar cells instead of usual ARC.