Title
Textured interfaces in monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells: Advanced light management for improved efficiency and energy yield
Date Issued
01 December 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Jošt M.
Köhnen E.
Morales-Vilches A.
Lipovšek B.
Jäger K.
Macco B.
Al-Ashouri A.
Krč J.
Korte L.
Schlatmann R.
Topič M.
Stannowski B.
Albrecht S.
Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics
Publisher(s)
Royal Society of Chemistry
Abstract
Efficient light management in monolithic perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells is one of the prerequisites for achieving high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs). Textured silicon wafers can be utilized for light management, however, this is typically not compatible with perovskite solution processing. Here, we instead employ a textured light management (LM) foil on the front-side of a tandem solar cell processed on a wafer with a planar front-side and textured back-side. This way the PCE of monolithic, 2-terminal perovskite/silicon-heterojunction tandem solar cells is significantly improved from 23.4% to 25.5%. Furthermore, we validate an advanced numerical model for our fabricated device and use it to optically optimize a number of device designs with textures at different interfaces with respect to the PCE and energy yield. These simulations predict a slightly lower optimal bandgap of the perovskite top cell in a textured device as compared to a flat one and demonstrate strong interdependency between the bandgap and the texture position in the monolithic stack. We estimate the PCE potential for the best performing both-side textured device to be 32.5% for a perovskite bandgap of 1.66 eV. Furthermore, the results show that under perpendicular illumination conditions, for optimized designs, the LM foil on top of the cell performs only slightly better than a flat anti-reflective coating. However, under diffuse illumination, the benefits of the LM foil are much greater. Finally, we calculate the energy yield for the different device designs, based on true weather data for three different locations throughout the year, taking direct as well as diffuse illumination fully into account. The results further confirm the benefits of front-side texture, even more for BIPV applications. Overall, devices built on a both-side textured silicon wafer perform best. However, we show that devices with textured LM foils on the cell's front-side are a highly efficient alternative.
Start page
3511
End page
3523
Volume
11
Issue
12
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería de materiales
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85057187597
Source
Energy and Environmental Science
ISSN of the container
17545692
Sponsor(s)
The authors thank Carola Klimm, Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics, for performing SEM images, Florian Ruske, Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics, for help with spectroscopic ellipsometry, and Kerstin Jacob, Institute for Silicon Photovoltaics, and Tobias Henschel and Katja Mayer-Stillrich, PVcomB, for help in the bottom cell processing. The authors acknowledge the funding by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) via program ‘‘Materialforschung fuer die Energiewende’’ (grant no. 03SF0540), the support provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) through the ‘‘PersiST’’ project (Grant No. 0324037C), bilateral project BI-DE/2017-2019/004 (German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and Slovene Research Agency (ARRS)) and research program P2-0197 (ARRS).
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst - DAAD
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung - BMBF
Javna Agencija za Raziskovalno Dejavnost RS - P2-0197 - ARRS
Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie - 0324037C, BI-DE/2017-2019/004 - BMWi
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus