Comparison of Light Trapping in Silicon Nanowire and Surface Textured Thin-Film Solar Cells

The optics of axial silicon nanowire solar cells is investigated and compared to silicon thin-film solar cells with textured contact layers. The quantum efficiency and short circuit current density are calculated taking a device geometry into account, which can be fabricated by using standard semiconductor processing. The solar cells with textured absorber and textured contact layers provide a gain of short circuit current density of 4.4 mA/cm(2) and 6.1 mA/cm(2) compared to a solar cell on a flat substrate, respectively. The influence of the device dimensions on the quantum efficiency and short circuit current density will be discussed.