Influence of WO(3)-Based Antireflection Coatings on Current Density in Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells

Antireflection coatings (ARCs) with an indium thin oxide (ITO) layer on silicon heterojunction solar cells (SHJ) have garnered significant attention, which is due to their potential for increasing current density (J(sc)) and enhancing reliability. We propose an additional tungsten trioxide (WO(3)) layer on the ITO/Si structure in this paper in order to raise the J(sc) and demonstrate the influence on the SHJ solar cell. First, we simulate the J(sc) characteristics for the proposed WO(3)/ITO/Si structure in order to analyze J(sc) depending on the thickness of WO(3) using an OPAL 2 simulator. As a result, the OPAL 2 simulation shows an increase in J(sc) of 0.65 mA/cm(2) after the 19 nm WO(3) deposition on ITO with a doping concentration of 6.1 × 10(20)/cm(2). We then fabricate the proposed samples and observe an improved efficiency of 0.5% with an increased J(sc) of 0.75 mA/cm(2) when using a 20 nm thick WO(3) layer on the SHJ solar cell. The results indicate that the WO(3) layer can be a candidate to improve the efficiency of SHJ solar cells with a low fabrication cost.