Enhancement of solar cell efficiency using two-dimensional photonic crystals

Optical absorption enhancement in a hybrid system photonic crystal — Thin film for photovoltaic applications

“…We attribute such rise in the absorption to the coupling of PC quasi-guided modes and the incident light. This effect has been observed before in PC [4,8,17] and it is very useful when using hybrid systems (PC+substrate) like the ones described here. …”

“…From a technological point of view, the thin layer provides a more robust mechanical support for the nanostructured layer. More interestingly, the modes inside the PC are also hybrid (not pure TE or TM) due to the broken symmetry [7][8][9][10][11]. In contrast respect to other works, we have made the calculation with GaAs and InP materials in addition to Si with a non-absorbing but dispersive ITO top-layer.…”

Increased Efficiency of Solar Cells Protected by Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Anti-Reflecting Nanostructured Glasses

“…This process improves both the light scattering in the absorbent thin layer and the anti-reflective effect in the interfaces over a wide range of wavelengths and incidence angles [ 6 , 7 ]. The anti-reflective properties originate from a gradual change in the effective refractive index in textures with texture sizes where the smallest characteristic corresponds approximately to the wavelength of incident light [ 5 , 8 ].…”