Optimization of silicon nitride antireflective nanostructures for silicon solar cells

Nanostructured antireflective coatings are emerging as key components in today’s highly efficient silicon solar cells. In this work, an antireflective structure composed of silicon nitride (SiNx) nanocone arrays on a SiNx thin layer is modelled and simulated. The structural parameters are optimized in order to suppress the surface reflectance and to enhance the short-circuit current density of crystalline silicon solar cells. With the optimized geometrical parameters, this antireflective structure is found to reduce the weighted reflectance down to 0.57% and to improve the short-circuit current density up to 41.94 mA/cm 2 in the wavelength range 300–1100 nm and under normal incidence. The reflectance is also found to stay below 1% for angles of incidence lower than 50° and for the s and p light polarizations.