Light trapping in ultrathin plasmonic solar cells

Ferry, Vivian E.; Verschuuren, Marc A.; Li, Hongbo B. T.; Verhagen, Ewold; Walters, Robert J.; Schropp, R.E.I.; Atwater, Harry A.; Polman, A.

doi:10.1364/oe.18.00a237

Cited by 610 publications

(494 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Significant attention has been devoted to the optimization of the metal nanostructure size and shape 2,[20][21][22][23][24] . It was found that relatively large (50-150 nm) metallic particles are desirable because they exhibit relatively little absorption losses due to a favourable ratio of the scattering to absorption cross section.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of non-periodic plasmonic light-trapping layers for thin-film solar cells

et al. 2013

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Non-periodic arrangements of nanoscale light scatterers allow for the realization of extremely effective broadband light-trapping layers for solar cells. However, their optimization is challenging given the massive number of degrees of freedom. Brute-force, full-field electromagnetic simulations are computationally too time intensive to identify high-performance solutions in a vast design space. Here we illustrate how a semi-analytical model can be used to quickly identify promising non-periodic spatial arrangements of nanoscale scatterers. This model only requires basic knowledge of the scattering behaviour of a chosen nanostructure and the waveguiding properties of the semiconductor layer in a cell. Due to its simplicity, it provides new intuition into the ideal amount of disorder in high-performance light-trapping layers. Using simulations and experiments, we demonstrate that arrays of nanometallic stripes featuring a limited amount of disorder, for example, following a quasi-periodic or Fibonacci sequence, can substantially enhance solar absorption over perfectly periodic and random arrays.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimization of non-periodic plasmonic light-trapping layers for thin-film solar cells

et al. 2013

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“…With properly engineered photonic nanostructures, sunlight can be trapped within the thin absorbing silicon layers, thereby enhancing light absorption and thus conversion efficiencies. Recently, exciting new strategies for improving light harvesting have gained tremendous interest, including nanopillar-and nanohole-type geometries, [1][2][3][4][5][6] plasmonics and guided modes, [7][8][9][10][11][12] and photonic crystals. [13][14][15] Light scattering at nanotextured interfaces provides a powerful and proven alternative to improve the optical performance of thinfilm silicon devices.…”

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confidence: 99%

Nanoimprint Lithography for High-Efficiency Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

Battaglia¹,

Escarré²,

et al. 2011

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We demonstrate high-efficiency thin-film silicon solar cells with transparent nanotextured front electrodes fabricated via ultraviolet nanoimprint lithography on glass substrates. By replicating the morphology of state-of-the-art nanotextured zinc oxide front electrodes known for their exceptional light trapping properties, conversion efficiencies of up to 12.0% are achieved for micromorph tandem junction cells. Excellent light incoupling results in a remarkable summed short-circuit current density of 25.9 mA/cm 2 for amorphous top cell and microcrystalline bottom cell thicknesses of only 250 and 1100 nm, respectively. As efforts to maximize light harvesting continue, our study validates nanoimprinting as a versatile tool to investigate nanophotonic effects of a large variety of nanostructures directly on device performance.

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“…Till date, a number of structures have been used that are capable of coupling the incident light to surface modes such as surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and localized surface plasmons (LSPs), and different photonic modes so that light can be confined in a sub-wavelength dimensional structure. The structures mainly use nano-structures and gratings of metal and dielectric material in different layers of solar cells [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Management of light absorption in extraordinary optical transmission based ultra-thin-film tandem solar cells

Mashooq

Talukder

2016

Journal of Applied Physics

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Although ultra-thin-film solar cells can be attractive in reducing the cost, they suffer from low absorption as the thickness of the active layer is usually much smaller than the wavelength of incident light. Different nano-photonic techniques, including plasmonic structures, are being explored to increase the light absorption in ultra-thin-film solar cells.More than one layer of active materials with different energy bandgaps can be used in tandem to increase the light absorption as well. However, due to different amount of light absorption in different active layers, photo-generated currents in different active layers will not be the same. The current mismatch between the tandem layers makes them 1 ineffective in increasing the efficiency. In this work, we investigate the light absorption properties of tandem solar cells with two ultra-thin active layers working as two subcells and a metal layer with periodically perforated holes in-between the two subcells. While the metal layer helps to overcome the current mismatch, the periodic holes increase the absorption of incident light by helping extraordinary optical transmission of the incident light from the top to the bottom subcell, and by coupling the incident light to plasmonic and photonic modes within ultra-thin active layers. We extensively study the effects of the

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Light trapping in ultrathin plasmonic solar cells

Cited by 610 publications

References 35 publications

Optimization of non-periodic plasmonic light-trapping layers for thin-film solar cells

Optimization of non-periodic plasmonic light-trapping layers for thin-film solar cells

Nanoimprint Lithography for High-Efficiency Thin-Film Silicon Solar Cells

Management of light absorption in extraordinary optical transmission based ultra-thin-film tandem solar cells

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