Angular resolved scattering by a nano-textured ZnO/silicon interface

Textured interfaces in thin-film silicon solar cells improve the efficiency by light scattering. A technique to get experimental access to the angular intensity distribution (AID) at textured interfaces of the transparent conductive oxide (TCO) and silicon is introduced. Measurements are performed on a sample with polished microcrystalline silicon layer deposited onto a rough TCO layer. The AID determined from the experiment is used to validate the AID obtained by a rigorous solution of Maxwell’s equations. Furthermore, the applicability of other theoretical approaches based on scalar scattering theory and ray tracing is discussed with respect to the solution of Maxwell’s equations. VC 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3640238]