Surface engineering of zinc aluminium oxide and zinc aluminium sulphide films for improving the performance of polycrystalline silicon solar cells

Abstract

Depletion of fossil fuels leads to increase in energy demand, which drives the researchers to concentrate on alternative energy resources. Renewable energy gained more attention owing to the following advantages like generation of energy from natural sources, long-term sustainability and environmental friendliness. Solar energy is one among the renewable resources and silicon solar cell is used to convert the portion of incident energy from the sun light into electrical energy. Major portion of the incident light rays gets reflected back from the surface of the silicon solar cell which leads to high reflection loss. Several techniques have been reported by the researchers to control the reflection losses and thereby improving the Power Conversion Efficiency (PCE) of silicon solar cells. Anti-Reflection Coating (ARC) technique is one among the effective approaches to control reflection losses. ARC helps to reduce the reflection losses and eventually improves the light trapping characteristics of solar cells. The research work aims in improving the PCE of silicon solar cells through ARC approach. Materials with high anti-reflective medium is demanded to achieve the enhanced light trapping ability. Naturally available materials and chemically synthesized materials are employed as ARC materials for solar cell applications. Further, wide band gap semiconductors like zinc aluminium oxide and zinc aluminium sulphide possesses potential optical, electrical and thermal characteristics owing to their spinel structure. Adoption of the above materials as ARC medium was unexplored. newline