Influence of Efficient Thickness of Antireflection Coating Layer of HfO₂ for Crystalline Silicon Solar Cell

Anti-reflective coating (ARC) layers on silicon (Si) solar cells usually play a vital role in the amount of light absorbed into the cell and protect the device from environmental degradation. This paper reports on the thickness optimization of hafnium oxide (HfO₂) as an ARC layer for high-performance Si solar cells with PC1D simulation analysis. The deposition of the HfO₂ ARC layer on Si cells was carried out with a low-cost sol-gel process followed by spin coating. The thickness of the ARC layer was controlled by varying the spinning speed. The HfO₂ ARC with a thickness of 70 nm possessed the lowest average reflectance of 6.33% by covering wavelengths ranging from 400–1000 nm. The different thicknesses of HfO₂ ARC layers were used as input parameters in a simulation study to explore the photovoltaic characteristics of Si solar cells. The simulation findings showed that, at 70 nm thickness, Si solar cells had an exceptional external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 98% and a maximum power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 21.15%. The thicknesses of HfO₂ ARC considerably impacted the photovoltaic (PV) characteristics of Si solar cells, leading to achieving high-performance solar cells.