Integrating photonic crystals in thin film silicon photovoltaics

Abstract

Wave-optics analysis is performed to investigate the benefits of integrating photonic crystals into micromorph cells. Specifically, we theoretically investigate two novel micromorph cells which integrate photonic crystals and compare their optical performance with that of conventional micromorph cells. In the first innovative micromorph cell configuration the intermediate reflector is a selectively transparent and conducting photonic crystal (STCPC). In the second micromorph cell its bottom µc-Si:H cell is structured in the form of an inverted opal. Our results show that with the AM1.5 solar spectrum at normal incidence the current generated in a conventional micromorph cell is increased from 12.1 mA/cm 2 to 13.0 mA/cm 2 when the bottom μc-Si:H cell is structured in the form of an inverted opal. However, the current generated in the micromorph cell can be increased to as much as 13.7 mA/cm 2 when an STCPC is utilized as the intermediate reflector. Furthermore, the thickness of the μc-Si:H opal must be relatively large in order to absorb a sufficient amount of the solar irradiance, which is expected to degrade the electrical performance of the device. In contrast, our results suggest that STCPC intermediate reflectors are a viable technology that could potentially enhance the performance of micromorph cells.

Optical characterization of selectively transparent and conducting photonic crystals for use in thin crystalline silicon photovoltaics

“…STCPCs have been used in OLEDs [7] and their potential use has been explored for amorphous silicon BIPV [8] and micromorph silicon cells [9]. The use of STCPCs as reflectors in thin c-Si photovoltaics appears promising due to the fact that the materials used in an STCPC have a high index contrast (n ITO = 2 and n SiO2-np = 1.3-1.4 @ λ = 633 nm), they do not require the fabrication of vias for electrical conductivity, and they can potentially act as the rear electrode.…”

Advances in the construction of photonic structures with dual stopbands and beyond

“…In the past several decades, there have been an enormous number of research reports regarding the design and construction of photonic structures due to their wide applications in pigments, biomimetics, sensing, textiles, displays, coding, and decoding, etc. 7–23 However, most of these studies focused on the construction of photonic structures with a single stopband. 24–32 To broaden the applications of photonic structures, different routes have been adopted to construct photonic structures with multiple functionalities: one approach is to introduce different functionalized groups or components into the photonic structures, such as the introduction of different functional groups into the skeleton of the photonic structures or the use of functionalized colloidal particles as the building blocks, i.e.…”