Plasmonic and Mie scattering in nanopatterned back reflectors for III–V-on-silicon solar cells (Conference Presentation)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Concetto Eugenio Andrea Cordaro ◽  
Nico Tucher ◽  
Stefan Tabernig ◽  
Hubert Hauser ◽  
Oliver Höhn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Mie Scattering ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Back Reflectors

Light Propagation in Flexible Thin-Film Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells with Nanotextured Metal Back Reflectors

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 26184-26192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuangying Cao ◽  
Dongliang Yu ◽  
Yinyue Lin ◽  
Chi Zhang ◽  
Linfeng Lu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Amorphous Silicon ◽  
Light Propagation ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Back Reflectors ◽  
Metal Back

Thin-film silicon solar cells applying optically decoupled back reflectors

2013 ◽  
Vol 178 (9) ◽  
pp. 645-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Moulin ◽  
U.W. Paetzold ◽  
K. Bittkau ◽  
M. Ermes ◽  
L. Ding ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Thin Film Silicon ◽  
Back Reflectors

Light-trapping in Thin Film Silicon Solar Cells with a Combination of Periodic and Randomly Textured Back-reflectors

2012 ◽  
Vol 1426 ◽  
pp. 117-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sambit Pattnaik ◽  
Nayan Chakravarty ◽  
Rana Biswas ◽  
D. Slafer ◽  
Vikram Dalal
Keyword(s):  
Thin Film ◽  
Solar Cells ◽  
Light Absorption ◽  
Nanoimprint Lithography ◽  
Light Trapping ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Long Wavelength ◽  
Thin Film Silicon ◽  
Back Reflectors ◽  
Back Reflector

ABSTRACTLight trapping is essential to harvest long wavelength red and near-infrared photons in thin film silicon solar cells. Traditionally light trapping has been achieved with a randomly roughened Ag/ZnO back reflector, which scatters incoming light uniformly through all angles, and enhances currents and cell efficiencies over a flat back reflector. A new approach using periodically textured photonic-plasmonic arrays has been recently shown to be very promising for harvesting long wavelength photons, through diffraction of light and plasmonic light concentration. Here we investigate the combination of these two approaches of random scattering and plasmonic effects to increase cell performance even further. An array of periodic conical back reflectors was fabricated by nanoimprint lithography and coated with Ag. These back reflectors were systematically annealed to generate different amounts of random texture, at smaller spatial scales, superimposed on a larger scale periodic texture. nc-Si solar cells were grown on flat, periodic photonic-plasmonic substrates, and randomly roughened photonic-plasmonic substrates. There were large improvements (>20%) in the current and light absorption of the photonic-plasmonic substrates relative to flat. The additional random features introduced on the photonic-plasmonic substrates did not improve the current and light absorption further, over a large range of randomization features.

Photonic Crystal Back Reflectors for Enhanced Absorption in Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells

2010 ◽  
Vol 1245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Curtin ◽  
Rana Biswas ◽  
Vikram Dalal
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cells ◽  
Photonic Crystal ◽  
Amorphous Silicon ◽  
Light Absorption ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Silicon Solar Cells ◽  
Etch Depth ◽  
Enhanced Absorption ◽  
Back Reflectors ◽  
Back Reflector

AbstractPhotonic crystal back reflectors offer enhanced optical absorption in thin-film solar cells, without undesirable losses. Rigorous simulations of photonic crystal back reflectors predicted maximized light absorption in amorphous silicon solar cells for a pitch of 700-800 nm. Simulations also predict that for typical 250 nm i-layer cells, the periodic photonic crystal back reflector can improve absorption over the ideal randomly roughened back reflector (or the ‘4n2classical limit') at wavelengths near the band edge. The PC back reflector provides even higher enhancement than roughened back reflectors for cells with even thinner i-layers. Using these simulated designs, we fabricated metallic photonic crystal back reflectors with different etch depths and i-layer thicknesses. The photonic crystals had a pitch of 760 nm and triangular lattice symmetry. The average light absorption increased with the PC back reflectors, but the greatest improvement (7-8%) in short circuit current was found for thinner i-layers. We have studied the dependence of cell performance on the etch depth of the photonic crystal. The photonic crystal back reflector strongly diffracts light and increases optical path lengths of solar photons.

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