Anti-reflective microstructure array and its performance evaluation in thin film flexible solar cells

The anti-reflective (AR) structure greatly reduces the light reflection. When it is applied on solar cells, it enables more light to be absorbed by the cells, increasing the energy of the incident light and improving the light-to-electricity conversion efficiency. In this study, the optical properties of AR microstructures are investigated followed by the performance evaluation of solar cells. The AR microstructure is arrayed in a uniform and periodic fashion. When it is applied on PMMA, only 1.0% of the light is reflected away while 2.6% of the light is reflected on glass. The angular dependence performance is also improved with AR structure with 9.4% more light absorption, which can increase the effective energy generation duration for the solar cell. The AR structure is applied to amorphous silicon thin film solar cells by nano-imprinting technology. The solar cell with AR structure gained 8.63% more power compared to the conventional solar cells.