Enhanced Absorption Efficiency of Solar Cells Using Guided-mode Resonance

Abstract

In this study, we propose a grating structure using guided-mode resonance (GMR) to increase the absorption efficiency of a silicon solar cell. The proposed solar cell design consists of a one-dimensional diffraction grating and a planar waveguide layer of poly-silicon deposited on a silver reflector. We investigate the influence of structure parameters such as grating period, waveguide thickness, grating width and grating depth. Optimal parameters are found using the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. In the optimized GMR-assisted solar cell, absorption efficiency up to 65.8% is achieved in the wavelength range of 300 nm~750 nm.