Optimization of Single-Layer Anti-Reflection Coatings in 3D Crystalline-Silicon Solar Cells: TCAD Simulations and Optical Model
Abstract
This dataset accompanies the article "Optimization of the Anti-Reflection Coating in 3D Crystalline-Silicon Solar Cells: A Comparative TCAD Study of Five Dielectric Materials" (G. S. Ahathiyan and H. Victor Du John, Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences, India). It contains the simulation results and analysis for five single-layer anti-reflection coatings (ARCs), Si₃N₄, HfO₂, Al₂O₃, SiO₂ and MgF₂, applied to a three-dimensional crystalline-silicon solar cell modelled in Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD (drift–diffusion transport, Beer–Lambert optical generation, AM1.5G illumination, 300 K). Each coating was swept from 5 nm to 1 µm, and the open-circuit voltage, short-circuit current density, fill factor and conversion efficiency were extracted. The dataset includes: device results for all materials and thicknesses, and the optimum of each material; material properties and the full simulation parameters (structure, doping, contacts, physical models and mesh); a mesh-convergence study on four meshes; results of an analytical thin-film interference model with dispersive silicon optical constants and the AM1.5G spectrum: reflectance spectra, band-averaged reflectance versus refractive index, optically limited current density versus thickness, absorptance, optical generation profiles and an uncoated-silicon baseline; MATLAB scripts and input data that reproduce all figures of the article. Key results: Si₃N₄ gives the highest device efficiency (15.19 % at 50 nm), with HfO₂, Al₂O₃ and SiO₂ within 0.006 percentage points. The interference model shows that the optimum coatings raise the optically limited current density of bare silicon (25.0 mA cm⁻²) by 43 % for Si₃N₄ and HfO₂ at 75 nm, and by 38 %, 32 % and 29 % for Al₂O₃, SiO₂ and MgF₂. Data are provided as CSV files, an Excel workbook and a JSON file. Silicon optical constants are from Green (2008) and the solar spectrum from ASTM G173-03.
