The researchers say that, while an improvement of more than 1% in absolute terms may at first glance appear modest, it can enable solar cell manufacturers to greatly increase the performance of their products. That’s because higher efficiency is an effective way of reducing the cost price of solar energy.
The team achieved the result by applying a 30 nm layer of aluminium oxide to the front of a crystalline-silicon solar cell. The negative charges present in the aluminium-oxide layer helped eliminate energy losses at the surface, resulting in a 6% improvement of efficiency in relative terms. What’s more, it is likely to be relatively inexpensive to apply the aluminium-oxide layer.
The Plasma and Materials Processing group at the Eindhoven University of Technology says that a number of major solar-cell manufacturers have already shown interest in the processes for laying down ultra-thin aluminium oxide layers it has developed.