Laser-assisted manufacturing of micro-optical volume elements for enhancing the amount of light absorbed by solar cells in photovoltaic modules

The laser-generation of micro-optical volume elements is a promising approach to decrease the optical shadowing of front side metal contacts of solar cells. Focusing a femtosecond laser beam into the volume of the encapsulation material causes a local modification its optical constants. Suchlike fabricated micro-optical elements can be used to decrease the optical shadowing of the front side metallization of c-Si solar cells. Test samples comprising of a sandwich structure of a glass sheet with metallic grid-lines, an Ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) encapsulant and another glass sheet were manufactured in order to investigate the optical performance of the volume optics. Transmission measurements show that the shadowing of the metalling grid-lines is substantially decreased by the micro-optical volume elements created in the EVA bulk right above the grid-fingers. A detailed investigation of the optical properties of these volume elements was performed: (i) experimentally on the basis of goniometric measurements, as well as (ii) theoretically by applying optical modelling and optimization procedures. This resulted in a better understanding of the effectiveness of the optical volume elements in decreasing the optical shadowing of metal grid lines on the active cell surfaces. Moreover, results of photovoltaic mini-modules with incorporated micro-optical volume elements are presented. Results of optical simulation and Laser Beam Induced Current (LBIC) experiments show that the losses due to the grid fingers can be reduced by about 50%, when using this fs-laser structuring approach for the fabrication of micro-optical volume elements in the EVA material.