Journal ArticleDOI
Photonic crystal enhanced light-trapping in thin film solar cells
Dayu Zhou,Rana Biswas +1 more
TLDR
In this paper, photonic crystals were utilized to simulate enhanced light-trapping in a-Si:H thin-film solar cells, where a one dimensional photonic crystal or distributed Bragg reflector with alternating dielectric layers acts as low loss backreflector.Abstract:
We utilize photonic crystals to simulate enhanced light-trapping in a-Si:H thin film solar cells A one dimensional photonic crystal or distributed Bragg reflector with alternating dielectric layers acts as low loss backreflector A two dimensional photonic crystal between the absorber layer and the Bragg reflector diffracts light at oblique angles within the absorber The photonic crystal geometry is optimized to obtain maximum absorption The photonic crystal provides lossless diffraction of photons, increasing the photon path length within the absorber layer The simulation predicts significantly enhanced photon harvesting between 600 and 775nm below the band edge, and an absorption increase by more than a factor of 10 near the band edge The optical path length ratio can exceed the classical limit predicted for randomly roughened scattering surfaces at most wavelengths near the band edge The optical modeling is performed with a rigorous scattering matrix approach where Maxwell’s equations are solved read more
Citations
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Proceedings Article
Photonic crystals
Igor S. Nefedov,M. Marciniak +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe photonic crystals as the analogy between electron waves in crystals and the light waves in artificial periodic dielectric structures, and the interest in periodic structures has been stimulated by the fast development of semiconductor technology that now allows the fabrication of artificial structures, whose period is comparable with the wavelength of light in the visible and infrared ranges.
Journal ArticleDOI
Light Trapping in Silicon Nanowire Solar Cells
Erik C. Garnett,Peidong Yang +1 more
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that ordered arrays of silicon nanowires increase the path length of incident solar radiation by up to a factor of 73, which is above the randomized scattering (Lambertian) limit and is superior to other light-trapping methods.
Journal ArticleDOI
Optical absorption enhancement in silicon nanowire arrays with a large lattice constant for photovoltaic applications.
Chenxi Lin,Michelle L. Povinelli +1 more
TL;DR: The transfer matrix method is used to calculate the optical absorptance of vertically-aligned silicon nanowire (SiNW) arrays and shows that an optimized SiNW array with lattice constant of 600 nm and wire diameter of 540 nm has a 72% higher ultimate efficiency than a Si thin film of equal thickness.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fundamental limit of light trapping in grating structures.
TL;DR: This work uses a rigorous electromagnetic approach to analyze the fundamental limit of light-trapping enhancement in grating structures, which can exceed the bulk limit of 4n², but has significant angular dependency.
Journal ArticleDOI
Nanophotonic light trapping in solar cells
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the theory of nanophotonic light trapping, with experimental examples given where possible, focusing particularly on periodic structures, since this is where physical understanding is most developed, and where theory and experiment can be most directly compared.
References
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Proceedings Article
Photonic crystals
Igor S. Nefedov,M. Marciniak +1 more
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe photonic crystals as the analogy between electron waves in crystals and the light waves in artificial periodic dielectric structures, and the interest in periodic structures has been stimulated by the fast development of semiconductor technology that now allows the fabrication of artificial structures, whose period is comparable with the wavelength of light in the visible and infrared ranges.
Book
The physics of solar cells
TL;DR: In this article, the p-n junction Monocrystalline solar cells and thin film solar cells managing light over the limit: Strategies for Higher Efficiency are discussed. And the basic principles of PV Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors Generation and Recombination Junctions Analysis of the P-n Junction Mon-Cylindrical Solar Cells
Journal ArticleDOI
Surface plasmon enhanced silicon solar cells
TL;DR: Pillai and Catchpole this article acknowledge the UNSW Faculty of Engineering Research Scholarship and the support of an Australian Research Council fellowship, which they used to support their work in this article.
Journal ArticleDOI
A Dielectric Omnidirectional Reflector
Yoel Fink,Joshua N. Winn,Shanhui Fan,Chiping Chen,Jurgen Michel,John D. Joannopoulos,Edwin L. Thomas +6 more
TL;DR: A design criterion that permits truly omnidirectional reflectivity for all polarizations of incident light over a wide selectable range of frequencies was used in fabricating an all-dielectric omnid Directional reflector consisting of multilayer films.