Structured ZnO growth using electrochemical deposition for light management in Solar cells

Graduate Seminar Nanomolecular Science Program Jacobs University Bremen, Germany Uddin Md. Jalal March 02, 2012

Outline

Basic science of Solar Energy conversion Thin-films in Solar Cell

Overview of conventional light trapping technology and their limitations

Proposed research project

What is Photovoltaics (PV)?

Photovoltaics (PV) is a technology to generate electrical energy in the form of current and voltage from semiconductor when they are illuminated by photons. Why Photovoltaics?

Direct conversion of sunlight to electricity is possible using Solar cells Environment-friendly renewable energy source Guaranteed energy availability

Basic Process of Photovoltaics Energy Generation

The basic processes behind the PV effect are:

Generation of the charge carriers due to the absorption of photons in the materials that form a junction Subsequent separation of the photo-generated charge carriers in the junction Collection of the photo-generated charge carriers at the terminals of the junction
Fig.1 Illuminated semiconductor illustrating incoming, reflected and absorbed light in the semiconductor and light passing through the semiconductor.
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Fig.2 Electron-hole pair generation

Fig.3 Boosting electron at higher energy

Fig.4 Transfer electron to contact terminals

Fig.5 Transfer of energy to the external circuit

Conversion of Solar Energy

The solar spectrum shows that for AM1.0, a maximum intensity is at the wavelength l = 0.5 mm and it falls to half at l = 1 mm. AM = 1/cos, is the angle of the position of the sun with a vertical line.

Fig.6 Solar spectrum at different air masses

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Stephen J. Fonash (2010) Solar Cell Devices Physics, Elsevier, USA, 2nd Ed., 1-7

 The total input power PIN :

The output power POUT :

POUT = JV
The best efficiency of the PV energy conversion process for the cell of Fig. 4:
Fig.7 Cross-section of a typical Solar Cell

J mV m When As Ac P in

As J mV m When As Ac Ac P in

The fill factor:

FF

I mpV mp I scV oc
Fig.8 J-V Characteristic of Solar Cell under illumination
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Stephen J. Fonash (2010) Solar Cell Devices Physics, Elsevier, USA, 2nd Ed., 1-7

Motivation with Thin-film Silicon Material

Silicon is most commonly used material for photovoltaic device. Because Silicon is abundant and easy to obtain from earth crust Well characterized and use of Si material in thin-film leads to the cost minimization The thickness varies for a few mm to 10 mm with diffusion length of 10-20 nm Best efficiency of single Si is 24.7% with maxm theoretical value of 30%

K. L. Chopra et al. (2004) Prog. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 12, 69

Major Challenge with Si Solar cell

Thin film Si forms active layer of the thickness of a few mm Most of the photons dont contribute to the electron-hole pair generation Requires additional light trapping techniques

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Overview of Light Trapping Technology

Light trapping mechanism is required To increase the optical path length inside the active layer

To improve absorption in the active layer

To prevent light that otherwise would be lost

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Methods to Trap Light Inside Solar Cell

Methods to trap light are

Anti reflection coating

Use of back reflector

Surface texturing

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 Anti Reflection Coating (ARC):

Fig.9 Simplified schematic of thin film Si solar cell showing anti-reflecting coating

Materials that has lower refractive index (nARC) Materials with refractive index of 1.87 Materials thickness of d1= lo/4n1 Prominent ARC materials are ZnO, Si3N4
Albert Polman, Light management in thin- film solar cells, Center for Nanophotonics FOM-Institute AMOLF, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 13

(a)

(b)

Fig.10 (a) Thin film Si solar cell showing the effect of thickness of anti-reflecting coating on (b) Comparison of surface reflection with and without antireflection coating
14 http://pveducation.org/pvcdrom/design/anti-reflection-coatings

 Back Reflector & Surface Texturing:

Fig.11 Cross-section of microcrystalline thin film Si solar device showing (a) Flat back reflector (b) Textured back reflector

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Kenji Yamamoto (2003) JSAP International, 7, 12-19

Fig.12 Efficiency of microcrystalline thin film Si solar device having (a) Flat back reflector (b) Textured back reflector

Kenji Yamamoto (2003) JSAP International, 7, 12-19

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Limits of the Conventional Light Trapping

The maximum possible enhancement has an upper limit which is given by the absorption coefficient of 4n2/ Sin2, where, n = the refractive index of the active material

= the angle of emission cone in the medium

surrounding the solar cell But this limit is no applicable in nanophotonic regime using nanostructures

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Different Approaches to Enhance Light Trapping to Avoid Conventional Limits

Different approaches: Metal nanostructures

Photonic crystals
Optical interference in multilayer stacks

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Metal Nanostructures to Enhance Light Trapping

Fig.13 Light trapping by (a) scattering from metallic or dielectric nanostructures at the Surface of the solar cell, (b) scattering of light from a corrugated metal back surface couple to surface plasmon polariton H.A. Atwater and A. Polman (2010), Nature Materials 9, 205
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Proposed Model
Structured ZnO growth using electrochemical deposition for light management in Solar cell
Why ZnO?

Its a wide band gap (3.3 eV) material with semi conducting properties The optical and chemical properties as well as the structures of ZnO rely on its preparation method

Solution chemistry can be suitably used for ZnO growth with low temperature of less than 100C.
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Methodology for Fabrication of Solar Cell

Step 1: Collection of Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) on glass from the commercial source Step 2: Growth ZnO nanorods on top of ITO using electrochemical deposition

Fig.14 Schematic setup for the ZnO growth experiment

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Proposed Structure

Fig.15 Proposed design of nanorod-based hybrid solar cell

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Working mechanism of Proposed Model

Fig.16 Explanation of working of Proposed model with charge separating diagram

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Working Mechanism of Proposed Model

Top metal electrode should be transparent Light comes through the top transparent electrode and falls on the P3HT semiconductor Electrons from HOMO in P3HT get excited to LUMO level and then they go to the LUMO level of ZnO and get collected by the transparent top electrode Absence of electrons in the HOMO level of P3HT creates holes, and they are collected at the ITO Thus charge carriers generate current

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Conclusion
Use of indium-tin oxide (ITO) as the cathode
It has good conducting properties

Use of poly-3-hexylthiophene (P3HT) as active layer

It possesses high charge-carrier mobility It has good optical absorption properties Use of P3HT in organic solar cell as donar material provides the efficiency of about 5%

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Further Research to Continue

To replace highly cost contact materials with lower cost materials such as copper or carbon-based materials (nanotubes)
Low-cost (i.e. abundant) materials must be incorporated into reliable, high performance PV modules and systems

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Thanks for your kind attention!!!

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