Effects of front and rear texturing on absorption enhancement in laser-crystallized silicon thin-films on glass

The paper reports effects of front and rear texturing and their combinations on absorption enhancement in liquid phase crystallized (LPC) silicon (Si) thin-films on glass. In order for Si films to remain continuous after LPC, the root-mean-square (RMS) roughness of the glass at the glass–Si interface has to be less than 600 nm. The LPC Si on textured glass produces elongated grains of several hundred microns in width and up to centimeters in length, comparable to the films crystallized on planar glass. Texturing of the glass–Si interface is found to give the highest potential J sc ; 25.3 mA/cm 2 , or 24% enhancement compared to a planar reference film, with air as back surface reflector. It confirms the largest light-trapping effect at this interface in superstrate-oriented LPC Si thin-film solar cells due to both lower reflection and enhanced light scattering over the whole solar spectrum.