Amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells on glass fiber textiles

•Amorphous silicon solar cells on textile glass fiber fabrics are demonstrated.•Open circuit voltages of 883mV show shunt-free contacting on non-planar fabrics.•Short-circuit current densities of 3.7mA/cm2 are limited by transmission losses.•Fill factors of 43.1% and pseudo fill factors of 70.2% show high series resistance.•Efficiencies of 1.4% and pseudo efficiencies of 2.1% realized on textile fabrics. In this contribution, amorphous silicon thin-film solar cells on textile glass fiber fabrics for smart textiles are prepared and the photovoltaic performance is characterized. These solar cells on fabrics delivered open circuit voltages up to 883mV. This shows that shunt-free contacting of the solar cells was successful, even in case of non-planar fabrics. The short-circuit current densities up to 3.7mA/cm2 are limited by transmission losses in a 10nm thin titanium layer, which was used as a semi-transparent contact. The low conductivity of this layer limits the fill factor to 43.1%. Pseudo fill factors, neglecting the series resistance, up to 70.2% were measured. Efficiencies up to 1.4% and pseudo efficiencies up to 2.1% were realized on textile fabrics. A transparent conductive oxide could further improve the efficiency to above 5%.