An effective reflectance method for designing broadband antireflection films coupled with solar cells

The solar spectrum covers a broad wavelength range,which requires that antireflection coating(ARC) is effective over a relatively wide wavelength range for more incident light coming into the cell.In this paper,we present two methods to measure the composite reflection of SiO2/ZnS double-layer ARC in the wavelength ranges of 300-870 nm(dualjunction) and 300-1850 nm(triple-junction),under the solar spectrum AM0.In order to give sufficient consideration to the ARC coupled with the window layer and the dispersion effect of the refractive index of each layer,we use multidimensional matrix data for reliable simulation.A comparison between the results obtained from the weighted-average reflectance(WAR) method commonly used and that from the effective-average reflectance(EAR) method introduced here shows that the optimized ARC through minimizing the effective-average reflectance is convenient and available.     

紫外光谱辐射定标中的漫反射板反射特性研究

建立了紫外波段漫反射板双向反射分布函数的测量装置,研究了在特定接收条件下铝漫反射板双向反射分布函数(BRDF)随入射角的变化,并对测量误差作了相应的分析,漫反射板定标的相对精度小于2.5％。测量了铝漫反射板从250～650 nm的半球反射比。随着波长的增加,铝漫反射板的半球反射比略呈上升趋势,在紫外探测仪的探测波段300～360 nm之间变化约6%。监测了铝漫反射板的半球反射比随时间的长期变化。铝漫反射板在制备一年后,其半球反射比基本保持稳定,在紫外探测仪的探测波段300～360 nm范围内,其半球反射比平均下降约0.9％。     

Sol-gel preparation and characterization of nanoporous ZnO/SiO2 coatings with broadband antireflection properties

Nanoporous ZnO/SiO₂ bilayer coatings were prepared on the surface of glass substrates via sol-gel dip-coating process. The structural, morphological and optical properties of the coatings were characterized. The refractive indices of ZnO layer and SiO₂ layer are 1.34 and 1.21 at 550 nm, respectively. The transmittance and reflectance spectra of the coatings were investigated and the broadband antireflection performance of the bilayer structure was determined over the solar spectrum. The solar transmittances in the range of 300-1200 nm and 1200-2500 nm are increased by 6.5% and 6.2%, respectively. The improvement of transmittance is attributed to the destructive interference of light reflected from interfaces between the different refractive-index layers with an optimized thickness. Such antireflection coatings of ZnO/SiO₂ provide a promising route for solar energy applications.     

GaAs多结电池宽光谱ZnS/Al2O3/MgF2减反射膜的设计与分析

 为了提高砷化镓(GaAs)多结太阳电池的光电转换效率,设计了宽光谱(300 nm～1 800 nm)ZnS/Al2O3/MgF2三层减反射膜,分析了各层的厚度及折射率对三层膜系有效反射率的影响。结果表明： 对于整个波长,ZnS厚度对有效反射率的影响要大于Al2O3和MgF2,MgF2厚度对有效反射率的影响最小;适当减小MgF2的折射率或增加ZnS的折射率可得到更低的有效反射率。同时,当 ZnS,Al2O3和MgF2的最优物理厚度分别为52.77 nm,82.61 nm,125.17 nm时,此时最小有效反射率为2.31％。     

等离子体浸没离子注入制备黑硅抗反射层及其光学特性研究

表面织构是一种有效降低表面反射率、提高硅基太阳能电池效率的方法. 采用等离子体浸没离子注入的方法制备了黑硅抗反射层.分别通过原子力显微镜和紫外-可见-近红外分光光度计对黑硅样品表面形貌和反射率进行分析, 结果发现黑硅样品表面布满了高度为0—550 nm的山峰状结构, 结构层中硅体积分数和折射率随抗反射层厚度增加而连续降低. 在300—1000 nm波段范围内,黑硅样品的加权平均反射率低至6.0%. 通过传递矩阵方法对黑硅样品反射谱进行模拟,得到的反射谱与实测反射谱非常符合.     

Accuracy design of ultra-low residual reflection coatings for laser optics

Refractive index inhomogeneity is one of the important characteristics of optical coating material, which is one of the key factors to produce loss to the ultra-low residual reflection coatings except using the refractive index inhomogeneity to obtain gradient-index coating. In the normal structure of antireflection coatings for center wavelength at 532 nm, the physical thicknesses of layer H and layer L are 22.18 nm and 118.86 nm, respectively. The residual reflectance caused by refractive index inhomogeneity(the degree of inhomogeneous is between -0.2 and 0.2) is about 200 ppm, and the minimum reflectivity wavelength is between 528.2 nm and 535.2 nm. A new numerical method adding the refractive index inhomogeneity to the spectra calculation was proposed to design the laser antireflection coatings, which can achieve the design of antireflection coatings with ppm residual reflection by adjusting physical thickness of the couple layers. When the degree of refractive index inhomogeneity of the layer H and layer L is-0.08 and 0.05 respectively, the residual reflectance increase from zero to 0.0769% at 532 nm. According to the above accuracy numerical method, if layer H physical thickness increases by 1.30 nm and layer L decrease by 4.50 nm, residual reflectance of thin film will achieve to 2.06 ppm. When the degree of refractive index inhomogeneity of the layer H and layer L is 0.08 and -0.05 respectively, the residual reflectance increase from zero to 0.0784% at 532 nm. The residual reflectance of designed thin film can be reduced to 0.8 ppm by decreasing the layer H of 1.55 nm while increasing the layer L of 4.94 nm.     

Improved performance of a crystalline silicon solar cell based on ZnO/PS anti-reflection coating layers

A porous silicon (PS) layer was prepared by photoelectrochemical etching (PECE), and a zinc oxide (ZnO) film was deposited on a PS layer using a radio frequency (RF) sputtering system. The surface morphology of the PS and ZnO/PS layers was characterised using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Nano-pores were produced in the PS layer with an average diameter of 5.7 nm, which increased the porosity to 91%. X-ray diffraction (XRD) of the ZnO/PS layers shows that the ZnO film is highly oriented along the c-axis perpendicular to the PS layer. The average crystallite size of the PS and ZnO/PS layers are 17.06 and 17.94 nm, respectively. The photoluminescence (PL) emission spectra of the ZnO/PS layers present three emission peaks, two peaks located at 387.5 and 605 nm due to the ZnO nanocrystalline film and a third located at 637.5 nm due to nanocrystalline PS. Raman measurements of the ZnO/PS layers were performed at room temperature (RT) and indicate that a high-quality ZnO nanocrystalline film was formed. Optical reflectance for all the layers was obtained using an optical reflectometer. The lowest effective reflectance was obtained for the ZnO/PS layers. The fabrication of crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells based on the ZnO/PS anti-reflection coating (ARC) layers was performed. The I–V characteristics of the solar cells were studied under 100 mW/cm² illumination conditions. The ZnO/PS layers were found to be an excellent ARC and to exhibit exceptional light-trapping at wavelengths ranging from 400 to 1000 nm, which led to a high efficiency of the c-Si solar cell of 18.15%. The ZnO/PS ARC layers enhance and increase the efficiency of the c-Si solar cell. In this paper, the fabrication processes of the c-Si solar cell with ZnO/PS ARC layers are an attractive and promising technique to produce high-efficiency and low-cost of c-Si solar cells.     

Fabrication and characterization of zinc oxide anti-reflective coating on flexible thin film microcrystalline silicon solar cell

This paper studies the fabrication and characterization of 80 nm zinc oxide anti-reflective coating (ARC) on flexible 1.3 μm thin film microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si) solar cell. High resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) shows a c-axis oriented ZnO (0 0 2) peak (hexagonal crystal structure) at 34.3° with full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.3936°. Atomic force microscope (AFM) measures high surface roughness root-mean-square (RMS) of the layer (50.76 nm) which suggests scattering of the incident light at the front surface of the solar cell. UV–vis spectrophotometer illustrates that ZnO ARC has optical transmittance of more than 80% in the visible and infra-red (IR) regions and corresponds to band gap (E_g) of 3.3 eV as derived from Tauc equation. Inclusion of ZnO ARC successfully suppresses surface reflectance from the cell to 2% (at 600 nm) due to refractive index grading between the Si and the ZnO besides quarter-wavelength (λ/4) destructive interference effect. The reduced reflectance and effective scattering effect of the incident light at the front side of the cell are believed to be the reasons why short-circuit current (I_sc) and efficiency (η) of the cell improve.     

基于BiFeO_3/ITO复合膜表面钝化的黑硅太阳电池性能研究

采用金属银辅助化学刻蚀法在制绒的硅片表面刻蚀纳米孔形成微纳米双层结构,以期获得高吸收率的太阳能电池用黑硅材料.鉴于微纳米结构会在晶硅表面引入大量的载流子复合中心,利用磁控溅射技术在黑硅太阳电池表面制备了BiFeO_3/ITO复合膜,并对其表面性能和优化效果进行了探索.实验制备的具有微纳米双层结构的黑硅纳米线长约180—320 nm,在300—1000 nm波长范围内入射光反射率均在5%以下.沉积BiFeO_3/ITO复合薄膜后的黑硅太阳能电池反射率略有提高,但仍然具有较强的光吸收性能;采用BiFeO_3/ITO复合膜的黑硅太阳能电池开路电压和短路电流密度分别由最初的0.61 V和28.42 mA/cm~2提升至0.68 V和34.57 mA/cm~2,相应电池的光电转化效率由13.3%上升至16.8%.电池综合性能的改善主要是因为沉积BiFeO_3/ITO复合膜提高了电池光生载流子的有效分离,从而增强了黑硅太阳电池短波区域的光谱响应,表明具有自发极化性能的BiFeO_3薄膜对黑硅太阳能电池的表面性能可起到较好的优化作用.     

Spectral reflectance characteristics of different snow and snow-covered land surface objects and mixed spectrum fitting

The field spectroradiometer was used to measure spectra of different snow and snow-covered land surface objects in Beijing area.The result showed that for a pure snow spectrum,the snow reflectance peaks appeared from visible to 800 nm band locations;there was an obvious absorption valley of snow spectrum near 1 030 nm wavelength.Compared with fresh snow,the reflection peaks of the old snow and melting snow showed different degrees of decline in the ranges of 300～1 300,1 700～1 800 and 2 200～2 300 nm,the lowe...     

Amorphous Er2O3 films for antireflection coatings

This paper reports that stoichiometric, amorphous, and uniform Er2O3 films are deposited on Si(001) substrates by a radio frequency magnetron sputtering technique. Ellipsometry measurements show that the refractive index of the Er2O3 films is very close to that of a single layer antireflection coating for a solar cell with an air surrounding medium during its working wavelength. For the 90-nm-thick film, the reflectance has a minimum lower than 3% at the wavelength of 600 nm and the weighted average reflectances (400-1000 nm) is 11.6%. The obtained characteristics indicate that Er2O3 films could be a promising candidate for antireflection coatings in solar cells.     

Highly effective III-V solar cells by controlling the surface roughnesses

An advanced approach to minimize the light loss was discussed for III-V solar cells, by controlling the roughnesses of the device surface. Adhesives with different viscosities were applied to bond the III-V solar cells with the supporting substrate before the epitaxial lift-off process. The surface roughness of the III-V solar cells with epoxy adhesive (R_rms = 15.4 nm) is one order of magnitude higher than that with acrylic adhesive (R_rms = 1.6 nm), due to the differences in viscosity, resulting from the spreadability while being hardened. This roughness has increased the reflectance in the wavelength between 650 and 900 nm, implying that this reflectance is influenced by the rear surface of the solar cell. The device performance of the double-junction solar cells (Ga_0.5In_0.5P- and GaAs- based) also reflects the effect of the reflectance. The solar cell with the epoxy adhesive exhibited ~2% increase of the conversion efficiency than that with the acrylic adhesive, mainly due to the increased current density. The integrated current density from the external quantum efficiency (EQE) also exhibited ~2% increase only in the bottom (GaAs-based) cell, corresponding to the higher reflectance for red and near-infrared wavelength ranges.     

高速850 nm垂直腔面发射激光器的优化设计与外延生长

利用传输矩阵理论和TFCalc薄膜设计软件分析了分布布拉格反射镜和垂直腔面发射激光器(VCSEL)的反射率谱特性,对比了从谐振腔入射与从表面入射时反射率谱的差异,为白光反射谱表征VCSEL外延片提供了依据.利用Crosslight软件模拟了InGaAs/AlGaAs应变量子阱的增益谱随温度的变化特性及VCSEL器件内部温度分布,设计了增益-腔模调谐的VCSEL.采用金属有机物化学气相淀积设备外延生长了顶发射VCSEL,制作了氧化孔径为7.5μm的氧化限制型VCSEL器件,测试了器件的直流特性、光谱特性和眼图特性;6 mA,2.5 V偏置条件下输出光功率达5 mW,4级脉冲幅度调制传输速率达50 Gbit/s.     

Novel and low reflective silicon surface fabricated by Ni-assisted electroless etching and coated with atomic layer deposited Al2O3 film

In this paper, nickel nanoparticles (Ni NPs) were deposited on planar silicon and pyramidal silicon wafers by the magnetron sputtering method, and then these Ni NP-covered samples were etched in a hydrofluoric acid, hydrogen peroxide, and deionized water mixed solution at room temperature to fabricate a low reflective silicon surface. An alumina (Al₂O₃) film was then deposited on the surface of the as-etched pyramidal sample by atomic layer deposition to further reduce the reflectance. The morphologies and compositions of these samples were studied by using a field emission scanning electron microscope attached to an energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer. The surface reflectance measurements were carried out with a UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer in a wavelength range of 200–1100 nm. The SEM images show that the as-etched planar and pyramidal silicon samples were covered with many rhombic nanostructures and that some nanostructures on the planar silicon surface were ready to exhibit a flower-like burst. The reflectances of the as-etched planar and pyramidal silicon samples were 5.22 % and 3.21 % in the wavelength range of 400–800 nm, respectively. After being coated with a 75-nm-thick Al₂O₃ film, the etched pyramidal silicon sample showed an even lower reflectance of 2.37 % from 400 nm to 800 nm.     

表面等离子激元与F-P共振耦合平衡钙钛矿太阳能电池有源层内载流子产生速率

为提高有机-无机杂化钙钛矿太阳能电池（PSCs）光吸收效率、平衡有源层中载流子产生速率,将周期性纳米光栅结构引入到PSCs器件结构中。分析了光栅周期、光栅高度和有源层厚度对表面等离子激元（SPPs）与法布里-珀罗（F-P）共振耦合模式的影响。通过改变光栅周期,实现了SPPs与F-P共振耦合波长范围与钙钛矿材料的弱吸收光谱区域相重合,同时光栅高度的增加可以增大耦合模式的光谱宽度。SPPs与F-P共振耦合模式实现了金属电极与电子传输层（ETL）界面处的局域电场增强。结果表明:场增强效应扩展到有源区,有效提高了PSCs有源层远入射光侧在570~800 nm波长范围内的光吸收,进而提高了有源层远入射光区域的载流子产生速率。当光栅周期为250 nm、光栅高度为50 nm、源层厚度为300 nm时,PSCs在太阳光弱吸收光谱区域内的本征吸收提高了~12%,有源层远入射光侧载流子产生速率提高了~41%。     

Quaternary n-Al0.08In0.08Ga0.84N/p-Si-based solar cell

Quaternary n-type Al_0.08In_0.08Ga_0.84N grown on p-Si using molecular beam epitaxy technique was fabricated as a pn-junction and an anti-reflection coating (ARC) of solar cells. The structural properties and surface morphology of the solar cells were investigated using scanning electron and atomic force microscopy. Optical reflectance was obtained using an optical reflectometery system (Filmetric F20-VIS). Current–voltage characteristics were examined under 100 mW cm^?2 illumination conditions. Quaternary n-type Al_0.08In_0.08Ga_0.84N coating was found to be an excellent ARC against incident light compared with other ARCs. This material also exhibited good light trapping over a wide wavelength spectrum, which produced highly efficient solar cells. The unique and strong polarization, as well as the piezoelectric effect, of the quaternary-nitrides was employed to reduce surface recombination velocities and enhance the solar cell performance. A solar cell with reasonable conversion efficiency of 9.74% was obtained when the n-Al_0.08In_0.08Ga_0.84N/p-Si was employed.     

星上定标漫射板远紫外BRDF测量方法

针对星载漫射板远紫外波段(140~240nm)的双向反射分布函数测量过程中,探测器响应线性问题和紫外光源稳定性差的问题,提出一种采用光源监测比例补偿的相对测量方法.根据测量方法设计了一种基于六自由度转台结构形式的测量系统,该系统采用漫射板两维平移+两维转动、探测器两维转动的组合运动形式,可实现漫射板半球空间内任意点、任意方位的双向反射分布函数测量.用所提方法进行测量实验,并对影响系统测量结果的主要因素进了不确定度分析,结果表明总测量不确定度约为5.5%.     

A high efficient antireflective down-conversion Y<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript>:Bi<Superscript>3+</Superscript>, Yb<Superscript>3+</Superscript> thin films

The high efficient antireflective down-conversion Y₂O₃:Bi, Yb films have been prepared successfully on Si(100) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method, Upon excitation of ultraviolet photon varying from 300 to 400 nm, near-infrared emission of Yb³⁺ was observed for the film, can be efficiently absorbed by silicon (Si) solar cell. Most interestingly, there is a very low average reflectivity 1.46% for the incident light from 300 to 1100 nm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the lowest reflectance for the down-conversion thin films prepared by cost efficient method. The surface topography of the high efficient antireflective films can be controllably tuned through the substrate template regulation by optimizing process parameters. Besides, the results showed that there is a close relationship between luminescent property and morphology of the film. With the change of the surface morphology, the intensity of Bi³⁺ and Yb³⁺ emission peaks increase first and then decrease. The obtained results demonstrate that this film can enhance the Si solar cell efficiency through light trapping and spectrum shifting.     

Waveguiding effect in 2D metal–dielectric–metal grating structure

We have studied the waveguiding effect in a 2D metal–dielectric–metal (MDM) grating structure formed on a quartz substrate. The grating was first formed via e-beam lithography and subsequently covered by Ag/MgF₂/Ag MDM films. At a pitch of 300 nm in both x- and y-directions, low reflectance and transmittance were observed in the UV–VIS range, indicating efficient coupling of normal incident light into waveguiding modes. As evidence, we measured the spectrum of the waveguide from the edge, and the bandwidth of the spectrum was as narrow as ∼74 nm. The bandwidth of the waveguide can be further improved by increasing the MDM stack number. In addition, the bandwidth can also be widened by increasing the pitch of the structure. The physical mechanism underlying the phenomena was analyzed and experimentally confirmed. Such effect could be useful in many applications, such as DFB lasers, solar cells, waveguides, and light emitting devices.     

Extending absorption of near-infrared wavelength range for high efficiency CIGS solar cell via adjusting energy band

The efficient photon harvesting in near infrared wavelength range is still a challenging problem for high performance Cu(In_1-x, Ga_x)Se₂ (CIGS) solar cell. Herein, adjusting the energy band distribution of CIGS solar cell could provide significant academic guidance for devices with superior output electric power. To understand the role of each functional layer, the optimal 3000 nm CIGS absorber layer with 1.3 eV bandgap and 30 nm CdS buffer layer were firstly obtained via simulating the uniform band-gap structures. By introducing CIGS absorber layer with a double grading Ga/(Ga+In) profile, the power conversion efficiency of the double gradient band gap cell is superior to that of uniform band-gap cell through extending absorption of near-infrared wavelength range. Upon optimization, the best power conversion efficiency of CIGS with a double gradient band gap solar cell is improved significantly to 24.90%, among the best values reported in literatures, which is an 8.17% relative increase compared with that of the uniform band-gap cell. Our findings provide a theoretical guide toward the design of high performance solar cells and enrich the understandings of the energy band engineering for developing of novel semiconductor devices.