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Enhanced Omnidirectional Photovoltaic Performance of Solar Cells Using Multiple-Discrete-Layer Tailored- and Low-Refractive Index Anti-Reflection Coatings

  1. Xing Yan1,
  2. David J. Poxson3,
  3. Jaehee Cho2,
  4. Roger E. Welser4,
  5. Ashok K. Sood4,
  6. Jong Kyu Kim5,
  7. E. Fred Schubert2,*

Article first published online: 17 SEP 2012

DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201201032

Issue

Advanced Functional Materials

Advanced Functional Materials

Volume 23, Issue 5, pages 583–590, February 5, 2013

Additional Information

How to Cite

Yan, X., Poxson, D. J., Cho, J., Welser, R. E., Sood, A. K., Kim, J. K. and Schubert, E. F. (2013), Enhanced Omnidirectional Photovoltaic Performance of Solar Cells Using Multiple-Discrete-Layer Tailored- and Low-Refractive Index Anti-Reflection Coatings. Adv. Funct. Mater., 23: 583–590. doi: 10.1002/adfm.201201032

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Physics, Applied Physics and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, NY 12180, USA

  2. 2

    Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, NY 12180, USA

  3. 3

    Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, NY 12180, USA

  4. 4

    Magnolia Solar, Inc., 54 Cummings Park, Woburn, MA 01801, USA

  5. 5

    Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, Pohang, 790-784, Korea

*Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 Eighth Street, Troy, NY 12180, USA.

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 1 FEB 2013
  2. Article first published online: 17 SEP 2012
  3. Manuscript Revised: 14 JUN 2012
  4. Manuscript Received: 13 APR 2012

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Keywords:

  • omnidirectional;
  • anti-reflection;
  • tailored-refractive-index;
  • photovoltaic devices;
  • solar cells

Abstract

An optimized four-layer tailored- and low-refractive index anti-reflection (AR) coating on an inverted metamorphic (IMM) triple-junction solar cell device is demonstrated. Due to an excellent refractive index matching with the ambient air by using tailored- and low-refractive index nanoporous SiO2 layers and owing to a multiple-discrete-layer design of the AR coating optimized by a genetic algorithm, such a four-layer AR coating shows excellent broadband and omnidirectional AR characteristics and significantly enhances the omnidirectional photovoltaic performance of IMM solar cell devices. Comparing the photovoltaic performance of an IMM solar cell device with the four-layer AR coating and an IMM solar cell with the conventional SiO2/TiO2 double layer AR coating, the four-layer AR coating achieves an angle-of-incidence (AOI) averaged short-circuit current density, JSC, enhancement of 34.4%, whereas the conventional double layer AR coating only achieves an AOI-averaged JSC enhancement of 25.3%. The measured reflectance reduction and omnidirectional photovoltaic performance enhancement of the four-layer AR coating are to our knowledge, the largest ever reported in the literature of solar cell devices.

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