ZnO nanorod arrays as an antireflective coating for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film solar cells

A ZnO nanorod antireflective coating has been prepared on Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film solar cells. This coating leads to a decrease of the weighted global reflectance of the solar cells from 8.6 to 3.5%. It boosts the solar cells short‐circuit current up to 5.7% without significant effect on their open‐circuit voltage and fill factor (FF), which is comparable to a conventional optimized single layer MgF2 antireflective coating. The ZnO nanorod antireflective coating was electrochemically prepared from an aqueous solution at 80°C. The antireflective capability of ZnO nanorod arrays (ZNAs) may be further improved by optimization of growth conditions and their geometry. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. We report the successful application of ZnO nanorod arrays as an efficient antireflective coating for solar cells, in our case Cu(In,Ga)Se2 thin film solar cells. We show a simple electrochemical approach for preparing ZnO nanorods on solar cells and give a detailed analysis of the solar cells' optical and electrical properties before and after the ZnO nanorods deposition as well as a brief comparison between the ZnO nanorod antireflective coating and a conventional single layer MgF2 coating. This novel approach is a solar cells substrate independent process.