Improved efficiency in GaAs solar cells by 1D and 2D nanopatterns fabricated by laser interference lithography

Abstract

We demonstrate an improvement in efficiency of GaAs solar cells using front surface texturing with dielectric 1D and 2D nanopatterns obtained by a low cost laser interference lithography technique. The strong light scattering by the surface dielectric nanopatterns effectively increases the optical path of the incident light in the absorber layers resulting in an efficiency increase up to 23.5% compared to that of the reference solar cell. The observed efficiency improvement in the studied solar cells shows the potential use of low cost photoresist as an antireflection coating material and further application of other robust dielectric materials as texturing layer. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved