Process study about silica anti-reflection coatings prepared by sol–gel method for cadmium telluride solar cells

Silica (SiO₂) thin films with different refractive indexes as the anti-reflection coating for cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells were prepared by sol–gel method in this paper. In order to obtain the preparation process of SiO₂ films with suitable refractive index, the different hydrolysis processes relied on the acid-base environment as well as the ratio of reactants was studied, respectively. It mainly includes that (I) the gel growth model in hydrogen or hydroxide ion environment provided by hydrochloric and ammonia. (II) The ratio of solvent, precursor and catalyst under base catalysis. (III) The weight and amount of polyethylene glycol molecular which is an additive agent to increase the porosity of sol film under acid catalysis. Based on the results above, a monolayer SiO₂ coating with optimized refractive index was applied onto the glass substrate of CdTe solar cell, and the quantum efficiency has been enhanced at the band of 400–800 nm. After that, multilayer SiO₂ coatings with high–low refractive indexes were designed according to the Fresnel theory to achieve wider spectrum (390–870 nm) enhancement. The broadband anti-reflection coatings (BARCs) were deposited on CdTe solar cell. The results were not consistent with expectations, which required further study about process matching between BARCs and device manufacture.