Transparent Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells for Indoor Light Harvesting with Conversion Efficiencies of 36% without Photodegradation

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 12; no. 24; pp. 27122 - 27130
• Main Authors: Kim, Gayoung, Lim, Jung Wook, Kim, Jieun, Yun, Sun Jin, Park, Min A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 17.06.2020
• Subjects: transparent solar cells; amorphous silicon solar cells; indoor photovoltaics; colored solar cells; thin film silicon solar cells
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.0c04517

With the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), indoor photovoltaics are attracting considerable interest owing to their potential to benefit various IoT-related fields. Therefore, this study investigates the use of transparent hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) solar cells for a broad range of applications, including indoor light harvesting. High-gap triple layers were employed in the a-Si:H solar cells to obtain a high shunt resistance and high short-circuit current, , and open-circuit voltage, , under indoor illumination. Additionally, multiple color-adjusting layers were added without noticeable costs to the conversion efficiency. The maximum efficiency of 36.0% was obtained at a transmittance of 20.44% under white LED light (3000 lx and 0.92 mW cm ). Furthermore, the fabricated transparent solar cells show excellent long-term performance, sustaining over 99% of original efficiency under continuous indoor light illumination for 200 h. These cells could accelerate the progress of energy harvesting in IoT applications and facilitate the construction of integrated photovoltaics.