Calculations of the reflectance of porous silicon and other antireflection coating to silicon solar cells

Calculations of the reflectance for antireflection coating (ARC) made of porous silicon (PSi) were carried out. Although PSi has been the focus of interest in the last few years, a satisfactory model for calculation of its reflectance features is still absent. A combination of the optical matrix method and a graded-band gap model of PSi. which takes into account the gradient in porosity, has recently been suggested. Calculations based on the optical matrix method were carried out also for well-known ARC like MgF2, ZnS and Ta2O5 in order to prove the feasibility of the method. Good agreement with experimental data was found for all ARC types. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.