Silicon based solar cells using a multilayer oxide as emitter

In this work, n-type silicon based solar cells with WO3/Ag/WO3 multilayer films as emitter (WAW/n-Si solar cells) were presented via simple physical vapor deposition (PVD). Microstructure and composition of WAW/n-Si solar cells were studied by TEM and XPS, respectively. Furthermore, the dependence of the solar cells performances on each WO3 layer thickness was investigated. The results indicated that the bottom WO3 layer mainly induced band bending and facilitated charge-carriers separation, while the top WO3 layer degraded open-circuit voltage but actually improved optical absorption of the solar cells. The WAW/n-Si solar cells, with optimized bottom and top WO3 layer thicknesses, exhibited 5.21% efficiency on polished wafer with area of 4 cm2 under AM 1.5 condition (25 °C and 100 mW/cm2). Compared with WO3 single-layer film, WAW multilayer films demonstrated better surface passivation quality but more optical loss, while the optical loss could be effectively reduced by implementing light-trapping structures. These results pave a new way for dopant-free solar cells in terms of low-cost and facile process flow.