Novel Indium-Tin-Oxide Nano-Whiskers for Enhanced Transmission of Surface-Textured Silicon Photovoltaic Cells

Abstract

Conductive Indium-Tin-Oxide (ITO) nano-whiskers were deposited on surface-textured Si solar cells using glancing-angle electron-beam deposition. With different deposited time, the ITO nano-structured layer exhibit tunable thickness, which can be related to the surface reflectance. The optimized nano-whisker surface demonstrates a broadband anti-reflective properties (R<5%), better than the traditional Si(3)N(4) antireflection coating. Current-voltage and quantum efficiency analyses with the measured reflectivity data show enhanced optical transmission in the long wavelength range from 700nm to 1000nm, corresponding to a conversion efficiency improvement from 13.93% to 14.37%.