Conversion efficiency enhanced photovoltaic device with nanohole arrays in antireflection coating layer

In this paper, the authors introduce an enhanced photovoltaic device with nanohole arrays only in its antireflection coating. These nanoholes can improve light trapping efficiency as well as photoelectric conversion efficiency of the device. The authors analyze the light absorption of the devices with nanohole arrays by Finite-Difference Time Domain method and calculate the photoelectric conversion efficiency. The results show that the nanohole arrays can improve the light trapping more efficiently than the Si3N4 antireflection coating, especially, in 400–600 nm spectral range. Nanohole arrays with different characteristic parameters were fabricated in the antireflection coating layer of a Φ200 μm Si detector by using focused-ion beam system. With the optimized nanohole arrays, the enhancements factor of the experimental sample's photoelectric conversion efficiency is ~ 16% within the 400–600 nm spectral range and ~ 10% within the 400–1100 nm spectral range.

Research highlights
► Nanohole arrays were proposed as the AR of the photovoltaic device.
► The nanohole arrays can improve the light absorption of the device efficiently.
► The optimal lattice constant of the nanohole arrays is 500 nm.
► The nanohole arrays AR is insensitive to the incident angle of the light.