Assessment of combined TCO/metal rear contact for thin film amorphous silicon solar cells

An optical admittance method is applied to investigate the effect of light absorption enhancement on glass/TCO/p-i-n/TCO/metal type thin film a-Si:H solar cells. The results reveal that a combined TCO/metal as a rear contact for a p-i-n type thin film a-Si:H solar cell can further increase the integrated absorbance in the active layer of the device. The optimal structure of such a device with the top and rear TCO thin film coatings is discussed