KEYWORDS: Air contamination, Light scattering, Scattering, Glasses, Interfaces, Solar cells, Thin film solar cells, Thin films, Silicon solar cells, Spatial frequencies
Optimization of light scattering by designing proper randomly textured surfaces is one of the important issues when
designing thin-film silicon solar cell structures. The wavelength region that needs to be scattered depends on the
absorber material and the thickness of the solar cell. The optimum morphology of the textured substrate can be defined
regarding the wavelength range intended for scattering. Good scattering is experimentally achieved by optimizing the
fabrication process of the randomly textured substrate. However, optimum morphological parameters have not been
analytically formulated. In this work we develop the morphological criteria for optimum light scattering in a-Si:H solar
cells using Aluminum Induced Texture (AIT) glass superstrates. Transmission haze is widely used as an evaluating
factor for scattering properties. Haze can be easily measured for the substrate/air interface. However, the relevant
scattering properties are those in the absorber material. These properties cannot be measured directly, but can be
predicted by an appropriate model. The simple model for haze calculation based on scalar scattering theory cannot
correctly estimate the haze value because it only considers the root mean square (RMS) roughness of the textured
surface, which does not contain information about lateral feature size. In addition, the opening angel of the haze
measurement is not considered in the equation. In this work, we demonstrate that the power spectral density (PSD)
function of the randomly textured surface can provide the missing information in the haze equation. A general
formulation for calculating the lateral feature size based on the PSD function is presented. We use this calculated haze
value based on PSD to find the optimum lateral feature size for scattering a specific wavelength into the desired material.
The optimum lateral feature size for scattering 620-nm light, which is weakly absorbed in a-Si:H, is shown to be 100 nm.
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