Wear and degradation analysis of light management nanofabricated layers

Abstract

[Excerpt] The growing global energy demand and crescent search for fossil fuel independence has prompted the development of sustainable energy sources [1]. Photovoltaic technology stands out as a promising solution to meet this demand, with increasingly thinner solutions being developed in an attempt to reduce not only its production costs, but also the use of raw materials. In that sense, light management techniques have been seen as a successful strategy to improve the light absorption of ultrathin solar cells [2]. One of these strategies consist on adding nanoscale texturization on the front contact of solar cells, enabling an omnidirectional low reflection of light. This texturization corresponds to silicon nanopillars, referred to as moth-eye, an arrangement which has proved to produce the desired antireflection effect, minimizing the scattering of light.