Efficiency increase of crystalline silicon solar cells with nanoimprinted rear side gratings for enhanced light trapping

•Silicon solar cells with rear side diffractive gratings have been fabricated.•Fabricated solar cells are electrically planar, but optically structured (“EPOS”).•The nanoimprinted grating leads to current density gains of up to 1.8 mA/cm2.•For thinner solar cells (100 µm), the gain increases, in accordance to simulations.•Also for textured front side the grating leads to a small gain in the EQE.

We demonstrate diffractive rear side gratings to enhance the near infrared light trapping and thus the quantum efficiency of wafer based crystalline silicon solar cells. Binary crossed gratings with a period of 1 µm, produced via nanoimprint lithography and plasma etching, are electrically decoupled from the solar cell by a thin dielectric passivation layer, creating an electrically flat, but optically rough rear side. We fabricated solar cells with thicknesses of 250, 150 and 100 µm and demonstrate a short circuit current density gain due to the grating of 1.2, 1.6 and 1.8 mA/cm2 for solar cells with planar front surface. For solar cells with pyramidally textured front surface the grating also leads to a small current density gain in the near infrared of approximately 0.3 mA/cm2 according to EQE measurements, leading to the best cell's efficiency of 21.1%. By optical simulations we show the potential of the grating structure and identify losses in the fabricated solar cells.

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