Parametric study of micropillar array solar cells

Published

June 19, 2011

Author(s)

Heayoung Yoon, Yu A. Yuwen, Haoting Shen, Nikolas J. Podraza, Thomas E. Mallouk, Elizabeth C. Dickey, Joan A. Redwing, Christopher R. Wronski, Theresa S. Mayer

Abstract

Micro/nano pillar arrays can be a promising architecture for high efficiency solar cells based on less expensive photovoltaic materials with short minority carrier diffusion lengths (Ln, p). To investigate design tradeoffs of the radial junction array solar cells, we fabricated 25 µm-tall c-Si pillar array devices having different diameters and pillar filling ratio. The high-aspect-ratio radial p+-n+ junctions were formed by gas phase diffusion of an n-type dopant into etched p-type Si pillars. The c-Si pillar arrays showed clear rectifying properties. The spectral reflectance decreased with the pillar filling ratio increase from 0.2 to 0.5, but no subsequent decrease was observed above the filling ratio of 0.5. On the other hand, approximately two times higher cell efficiency was obtained with an 8 µm diameter (3 Ln) pillar array having the same pillar filling ratio.

Conference Dates

June 19-24, 2011

Conference Location

Seattle, WA

Conference Title

Photovoltaic Specialist Conferences, 2011

Pub Type

Conferences

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Keywords

etched pillar array, solar cells, microwire, silicon

Citation

Yoon, H. , Yuwen, Y. , Shen, H. , Podraza, N. , Mallouk, T. , Dickey, E. , Redwing, J. , Wronski, C. and Mayer, T. (2011), Parametric study of micropillar array solar cells, Photovoltaic Specialist Conferences, 2011, Seattle, WA, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=908786 (Accessed October 18, 2025)