Investigation of 3-dimensional structural morphology for enhancing light trapping with control of surface haze

•3-D Light trapping structures are investigated for Si thin film solar cells.•A glass texturing method is developed using chemical solutions of diluted HF.•FDTD simulation shows a notched periodic honeycomb texture will be effective one.•Periodic texturing shows better light scattering performance than random structures.•Fabricated periodic honeycomb structure shows high transmittance and haze values.

A comparative study of 3-dimensional textured glass morphologies with variable haze value and chemical texturing of the glass substrates was conducted to enhance light trapping in silicon (Si) thin film solar cells (TFSCs). The light trapping characteristics of periodic honeycomb structures show enhanced transmittance and haze ratio in numerical and experimental approaches. The periodic honeycomb structure of notched textures is better than a random or periodic carved structure. It has high transmittance of ∼95%, and haze ratio of ∼52.8%, and the haze property of the angular distribution function of transmittance shows wide scattering angles in the long wavelength region because of the wide spacing and aspect ratio of the texture. The numerical and experimental approaches of the 3-D texture structures in this work will be useful in developing high-performance Si TFSCs with light trapping.