Light Management in Crystalline and Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells

Light management covers a wide range of optical effects that aim at the optimum use of the incoming radiation within the solar cell. This chapter focuses on simplified, yet powerful, descriptions of how light is directed to the place where it is absorbed, leaving aside functionalities such as spectral conversion or luminescent shifting. The development of silicon-based solar cells, crystalline as well as thin film, has always been closely accompanied by efforts to enhance the light absorption. Light management should thus not only be understood in terms of directing light into the cell, but it should also include efforts to discover novel materials and device configurations that reduce wasting energy by parasitic absorption effects. Higher band-gaps and suitable conductivity have been obtained on micro-crystalline SiC, however, its deposition is so far limited to hot-wire chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and it was challenging to demonstrate p-type material.