Colloidal transfer printing method for periodically textured thin films in flexible media with greatly enhanced solar energy harvesting. (5th October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Yang, Xi; Sheng, Jiang; Wu, Sudong; Chen, Dong; Zhou, Jun; Zhou, Suqiong; He, Jian; Gao, Pingqi; Ye, Jichun
• Is Part Of: Materials research express. Volume 2:Number 10(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-10-05
• Subjects: light trapping -- nanosphere lithography -- flexible solar cells -- antireflection -- absorption enhancement; Materials science -- Research -- Periodicals; Materials science -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1088/2053-1591/2/10/106402
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2053-1591

Abstract

Abstract: The successful fabrication of high-performance flexible thin film solar cells (TFSCs) directly on diverse substrates is intrinsically limited by the processing temperature and substrate property. In this work, a colloidal transfer-printing (CTP) method is developed to fabricate large-area flexible thin-film absorbers with an antireflection coating and periodic configurations. Compared with a planar film, such structures exhibit much lower reflectance due to the antireflection introduced by the textured polydimethylsiloxane and the enhanced scattering introduced by the periodic back-scattering reflector. Optical simulation using the finite-element method indicates the structural periodicity for maximum light absorption is of 300 nm for an ultrathin amorphous silicon (a-Si) film with a thickness of 160 nm. The patterned a-Si film yields an overall absorption of 64.8%, which is much larger than the planar counterpart of 38.5%. This new approach to thin-film transfer can be readily extended to other material systems and device structures, opening up an effective alternative to traditional fabrication of the low-cost and high-performance optoelectronic devices.