Characteristics of silicon nanowire solar cells with a crescent nanohole

Abstract

In recent years, newly emerging photovoltaic (PV) devices based on silicon nanowire solar cells (SiNW-SCs) have attracted considerable research attention. This is due to their efficient light-trapping capability and large carrier transportation and collection with compact size. However, there is a strong desire to find effective strategies to provide high and wideband optical absorption. In this paper, a modified circular nanowire (NW) with a nanocrescent hole is newly introduced and analyzed for solar cell applications. The crescent hole can strongly improve the light absorption through the NW due to the excitation of numbers of modes that can be coupled with the incident light. The material index, volume, and position of the nanohole are studied to significantly increase the optical absorption efficiency and hence the power conversion efficiency (PCE). The absorption performance can be further preserved by using a silicon substrate due to the coupling between the supported modes by the NW, and that of the substrate. The optical and electrical characteristics of the suggested design are investigated using finite difference time domain and finite element methods via Lumerical software packages. The reported asymmetric design offers higher optical and electrical efficiencies compared to the conventional NW counterpart. The proposed NW offers a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 33.85 (34.35) mA/cm2 and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.78 (17.05) % with an enhancement of 16.3 (16.8) % and 17.3 (18.4) % for transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) polarizations, respectively, compared to the conventional cylindrical counterpart.

Electrical performance of efficient quad-crescent-shaped Si nanowire solar cell

“…The design using the axial junction which has been suggested gives a value of of 33.8 mA and a PCE of 18.5%. The efficiency achieved surpasses that of the asymmetric NW studied, with a crescent nanohole 34 with a volume reduction of 45%. Furthermore, the PCE of the NW suggested in the core–shell is equal to 19%, with an enhancement of 23% compared to the solid NW.…”

“…Consequently, the (e–h) generated carriers in the thicker p-doped substrate layer have a higher probability of reaching the contacts. In this research, the dimension of the -doped back-surface-field (BSF) ( ) was taken as 400 nm 18 , 34 , which is smaller than the electron diffusion length thickness 48 . This layer helps in creating a barrier voltage for minority carrier recombination on the cathode Ag-metal contact 48 .…”

“… 33 had proposed a conical pore SiNW design, where a PCE of 17.5% by using standard good contact recombination was proposed. In 2020, a design based on NWs with a crescent nanohole was proposed, which offered a PCE of 17%, with an enhancement of 17% compared to the cylindrical solid NW design 34 .…”

Improving Absorption in Single Silicon Nanowires by Symmetry-breaking Design from Square to Rectangular Cross-section

“…We have also shown that the light absorption could be further enhanced by introducing a single shell [19,20] or graded dual shells [21]. Recently, some new strategies have been performed to improve the light absorption in the NWs based on the symmetry breaking, such as opening crescent design [22,23], off-axial core-shell design [24,25], asymmetrical nanovoid design [14], partially capped design [26][27][28][29] and crescent nanohole design [30]. More recently, we investigated the symmetry-breaking structure from circular NWs to elliptical NWs [31].…”

Enhanced Light-Harvesting in Single Rectangular Silicon Nanowires

“…Recently, some new strategies have been implemented to improve the lightharvesting capability of the NWs based on the symmetry breaking. For example, front (or rear)opening crescent design [33,34], off-axial core-shell design [35,36], asymmetrical nanovoid design [20], partially capped design [37][38][39][40], nanocone design [41][42][43][44], inclined design [45][46][47], disorder design [48][49][50][51][52] and crescent nanohole design [53]. More recently, we investigated the symmetry structure from circular NWs to elliptical NWs [54].…”