Modelling of Light Trapping in Acidic-Textured Multicrystalline Silicon Wafers

Abstract

Acidic texturing has been widely used to reduce the reflection losses for silicon solar cells fabricated on multicrystalline wafers, however, there are few available models which attempt to predict the reduced reflection after texturing based on the morphology of the textured surfaces. An optical model which simulates the light trapping and scattering effects of acidic-textured surfaces based on the surface morphology is presented. The developed model was experimentally verified by reflection measurements from multicrystalline silicon wafers textured using different etching conditions. The relationship between weighted average reflection and surface morphology is demonstrated with some of the trends being explained by simulating reflection in different wavelength regions. The developed model could be embedded into solar cell simulation tools or adapted to predict optical properties of diverse surface morphologies.