Antireflection Components

Antireflection coating became an integral part of designing different types of solar cells. Reflections can be minimized in certain wavelengths thus result in higher overall efficiency. In order to understand the working principle behind antireflection coatings, we must first understand the nature of light and it’s interaction with other materials. It is of utmost importance for solar cell designers and researchers to understand both the particle and wave nature of light in order to design a high efficiency solar cell. The Sun’s energy which radiates into the Earth’s surface and harnessed by solar cells are composed of broad spectrum of electro-magnetic (EM) waves combined together which form visible light that have different power densities depending on the wavelength of propagation. The particular region of operation for crystalline silicon solar cell is the visible spectrum.

Particle nature of light

Light consists of energy carrying quantum-mechanical particles called photon. The energy of photon is directly proportional to the frequency of propagation. Energy of photons can be calculated using the equation E = hc/ λ or E(eV) = 1.24 / λ(μm) which give results in electron volts. Violet and blue light which has high frequency and lower wavelength has higher energy photons

Photon flux is crucial in determining the generation rate of solar cells. The energy of photon at a particular wavelength multiplied by the photon flux will yield the power density which is measured in Watts per m2 (W/m2). The power density at a particular wavelength is characterized by the spectral irradiance which is the most commonly used method to characterize a light source. These set of equations are crucial in selecting materials for designing solar cells so that we can effectively utilize the energy radiated by the Sun into the Earth’s