Application of metal nanowire networks on hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin film solar cells

Abstract We demonstrate the application of metal nanowire (NW) networks as a transparent electrode on hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) solar cells. We first systematically investigate the optical performances of the metal NW networks on a-Si:H solar cells in different electrode configurations through numerical simulations to fully understand the mechanisms to guide the experiments. The theoretically optimized configuration is discovered to be metal NWs sandwiched between a 40 nm indium tin oxide (ITO) layer and a 20 nm ITO layer. The overall performances of the solar cells integrated with the metal NW networks are experimentally studied. It has been found the experimentally best performing NW integrated solar cell deviates from the theoretically predicated design due to the performance degradation induced by the fabrication complicity. A 6.7% efficiency enhancement was achieved for the solar cell with metal NW network integrated on top of a 60 nm thick ITO layer compared to the cell with only the ITO layer due to enhanced electrical conductivity by the metal NW network.