volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

To utilise maximum amount of available optical energy it is necessary to design a solar cell with minimum reflectance from its surface. Broadband anti-reflection coatings are essential elements for improving the photo current generation of photovoltaic modules. The vast majority of antireflection coatings are required for matching an optical element into air. In this work, we choose the substrate of the structure that has an index sufficiently higher than the available thin film materials to enable the design of high performance antireflection coatings. This high index substrate is silicon (Si) of refractive index 3.54 at design wavelength 500 nm. Quarter wavelength optical thicknesses (QWOTs) of films of various dielectrics are coated with refractive indices calculated by ``Root-Principle''. The reflection spectra of visible radiation in normal and oblique incidence with antireflection coatings up to six layers will be analysed to achieve nearly zero reflectance.

1. Cox, J. T. and G. Hass, Antireflection Coatings Physics of Thin Films, 239-304, ed. G. Hass and R. E. Thun, Academic, 1964.

2. Knittl, Z., Optics of Thin Films, Wiley, 1976.

3. Yu, W., L. Shen, Y. Long, P. Shen, W. Guo, W. Chen, and S. Ruan, Highly Efficient and High Transmittance Semitransparent Polymer Solar Cells with One-dimensional Photonic Crystals as Distributed Bragg Reflectors, Published by Elsevier B.V., 2013.

4. Yu, W., X. Jia, Y. Long, L. Shen, Y. Liu, W. Guo, and S. Ruan, "Highly efficient semitransparent polymer solar cells with color rendering index approaching 100 using one-dimensional photonic crystal," ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, Vol. 7, 9920-9928, 2015.
doi:10.1021/acsami.5b02039

5. Geetha Priyadarshini, B. and A. K. Sharma, "Design of multi-layer anti-reflection coating for terrestrial solar panel glass," Bulletin of Materials Science, Vol. 39, No. 3, 683-689, Indian Academy of Sciences, 2016.
doi:10.1007/s12034-016-1195-x

6. Matsuoka, Y., S. Mathonneire, S. Peters, and W. Ted Masselink, "Broadband multilayer anti-reflection coating for mid-infrared range from 7 μm to 12 μm," Applied Optics, Vol. 57, No. 7, 1645-1649, 2018.
doi:10.1364/AO.57.001645

7. Ismail Fathima, M. and K. S. Joseph Wilson, "Role of multilayer antireflective coating in ZnO based dye sensitized solar cell,", Elsevier Ltd, 2019.

8. Deka, S. and W. Mohammed, "Enhancement of light absorption using nanoparticles embedded double layer anti reflection coating," Engineering Journal, 2020.

9. Guo, X., X. Quan, Z. Li, Q. Li, B. Zhang, X. Zhang, and C. Song, "Broadband anti-reflection coatings fabricated by precise time-controlled and oblique-angle deposition methods," Coatings, Vol. 11, 492, 2021.
doi:10.3390/coatings11050492

10. Macleod, H. A., Thin-Film Optical Filters, Taylor & Francis, 2010.
doi:10.1201/9781420073034

11. Walheim, S., E. Schaffer, J. Mlynek, and U. Steiner, "Nanophase-separated polymer films as high-performance antireflection coatings," Science, Vol. 283, 520-522, 1999.
doi:10.1126/science.283.5401.520

12. Deng, C. and H. Ki, "Pulsed laser deposition of refractive-index-graded broadband antireflection coatings for silicon solar cells," Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, Vol. 147, 37-45, 2016.
doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2015.11.043

13. Uzum, A., M. Kuriyama, H. Kanda, Y. Kimura, K. Tanimoto, and S. Ito, "Non-vacuum processed polymer composite antireflection coating films for silicon solar cells," Energies, Vol. 9, 633, 2016.
doi:10.3390/en9080633

14. Makableh, Y. F., R. Vasan, J. C. Sarker, A. I. Nusir, S. Seal, and M. O. Manasreh, "Enhancement of GaAs solar cell performance by using a ZnO sol-gel anti-reflection coating," Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells, Vol. 123, 178-182, 2014.
doi:10.1016/j.solmat.2014.01.007

15. Kosten, E. D., J. H. Atwater, J. Parsons, A. Polman, and H. Atwater, "Highly efficient GaAs solar cells by limiting light emission angle," Light Sci. Appl., Vol. 2, e45, 2013.
doi:10.1038/lsa.2013.1

16. Jung, S. M., Y. H. Kim, S. I. Kim, and S. I. Yoo, , Vol. 11, 538, Current Applied Physics, 2011.

17. Schallenberg, U., "Design principles for broadband AR coatings," Advances in Optical Thin Films III, Proc. of SPIE, Vol. 7101, 710103-1, SPIE, 2008.

18. Vidal, B. and A. Fomier, "Nonquarterwave multilayer filters: Optical monitoring with a minicomputer allowing correction of thickness errors," Appl. Opt., Vol. 18, 3857-3862, 1979.
doi:10.1364/AO.18.003857

19. Macleod, H. A., Thin Film Optical Filters, Institute of Physics, 2001.
doi:10.1201/9781420033236

Dr. Samar Bahadur Chauhan

Dr. Sudesh Kumar Singh