Optical Nano-Antennas for Energy Harvesting

Obayya, S. S. A.; Areed, Nihal F. F.; Hameed, Mohamed Farhat O.; Abdel-Razik, Mohamed H.

doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-1671-2.ch006

Cited by 5 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Optical nanoantennas can be also useful in detection applications within the visible range. For example, it can be used in energy harvesting and solar cells [22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrared Nano-Focusing by a Novel Plasmonic Bundt Optenna

Awad¹

2023

Plasmonic Nanostructures - Basic Concepts, Optimization and Applications

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Infrared optical detection devices such as photodetectors, solar cells, cameras, and microbolometers are becoming smaller in size with a tiny active area in the range of a few micrometers or even nanometers. That comes at the expense of a smaller aperture area of the device, and in turn inefficient collection of infrared energy. Therefore, infrared plasmonic optical antennas are becoming essential to efficiently collect optical energy from free space and concentrate it down to the device’s tiny area. However, it is desirable to develop plasmonic antennas with a broad bandwidth, polarization insensitivity, wide field-of-view, and reasonable plasmonic losses. That ensures collection of most incident infrared radiation and enhancement of power absorption efficiency. In this chapter, some types of plasmonic antennas are explored with an emphasis on innovative type of optical antenna called Bundt Optenna. We investigate Bundt Optenna design and optimization. This antenna has a novel shape that looks like a Bundt baking pan and it is made of gold. Several Bundt unit cells can be arranged in a periodic array that is placed on top of a thin-film infrared absorbing layer. The Bundt Optenna utilizes surface plasmons to squeeze both electric and magnetic fields of infrared radiation down to a 50 nm wide area, thus enhancing absorption efficiency within an underneath thin-film layer. The Optenna demonstrates polarization insensitivity and ultra-broad bandwidth with a large fractional bandwidth within the near, short-wave, and mid-wave infrared bands. It also shows a remarkable enhanced power absorption efficiency and a wide field-of-view.

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“…Optical nanoantennas can be also useful in detection applications within the visible range. For example, it can be used in energy harvesting and solar cells [22][23][24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrared Nano-Focusing by a Novel Plasmonic Bundt Optenna

Awad¹

2023

Plasmonic Nanostructures - Basic Concepts, Optimization and Applications

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“…The solar power, is considered as the best abundant and non-polluting renewable energy source. Due to its abundance, non-toxicity and mature fabrication technology, silicon solar cell (SC) shares 90% from photovoltaic market investment 1 . The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of crystalline silicon (C-Si) SCs has reached the plateau region and its highest value approaches the theoretical limit of 27.6% 2 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The power conversion efficiency (PCE) of crystalline silicon (C-Si) SCs has reached the plateau region and its highest value approaches the theoretical limit of 27.6% 2 . To reduce the cost per watt, new generations of SCs have been introduced 1,2 . Thin film (TF) Si SC with active layer thickness of 1 µm is an economical solution for solar energy harvesting with low cost 1 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To reduce the cost per watt, new generations of SCs have been introduced 1,2 . Thin film (TF) Si SC with active layer thickness of 1 µm is an economical solution for solar energy harvesting with low cost 1 . However, TF technology suffers from lower absorption coefficients at longer wavelengths.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the absorption and power conversion efficiencies will be reduced. In order to increase the light path length inside the active layer, several nanostructures have been employed such as surface texture 1,3,4 , plasmonic nanoparticles 1 , and nanowire 5 .…”

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confidence: 99%

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Light absorption enhancement in ultrathin film solar cell with embedded dielectric nanowires

Elrabiaey

Hussein

Hameed

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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A novel design of thin-film crystalline silicon solar cell (TF C-Si-SC) is proposed and numerically analyzed. The reported SC has 1.0 µm thickness of C-Si with embedded dielectric silicon dioxide nanowires (NWs). The introduced NWs increase the light scattering in the active layer which improves the optical path length and hence the light absorption. The SC geometry has been optimized using particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique to improve the optical and electrical characteristics. The suggested TF C-Si-SC with two embedded NWs offers photocurrent density ($${J}_{ph}$$ J ph ) of 32.8 mA cm−2 which is higher than 18 mA cm−2 of the conventional thin film SC with an enhancement of 82.2%. Further, a power conversion efficiency of 15.9% is achieved using the reported SC.

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