Bioinspired pit texturing of silicon solar cell surfaces

In order to improve the light-harvesting capability of silicon solar cells, bioinspired texturing of the exposed surface was investigated. The texture has a pit topology, which is the negative of a previously analyzed bioinspired hillock texture. Multifrequency numerical simulations of the light-coupling efficiency were carried out within the framework of the geometrical optics over a large and relevant portion of the solar spectrum. The bioinspired pit texture exhibits an efficiency significantly greater than that of a flat silicon surface, and somewhat outperforms the bioinspired hillock texture.