Light trapping in randomly arranged silicon nanorocket arrays for photovoltaic applications

Realization of broadband optical absorption enhancement in thin film c-Si solar cells is essential for improving energy conversion efficiency and reducing cost. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of randomly arranged silicon nanorocket (SiNR) arrays as a new light trapping structure design for thin film silicon solar cells. The optical absorption of the randomly arranged SiNR arrays is investigated via finite-difference-frequency-domain (FDTD) simulation. Our calculations reveal that the light trapping structures facilitate the coupling of incident sunlight into the resonant modes and lead to significant photon absorption enhancement across a wide solar spectrum, resulting in ultimate efficiencies superior to nanowire and nanohole arrays with the same thickness. Our findings indicate that the randomly arranged SiNR arrays fabricated by the simple self-assembly and etching approach can have a significant impact on performance improvement in thin film silicon solar cells. (paper)