Resonant-cavity-enhanced a-Ge:H nanoabsorber solar cells for application in multijunction devices

Steenhoff, Volker; Juilfs, Maren; Ravekes, Regina-Elisabeth; Vehse, Martin; Agert, Carsten

doi:10.1016/j.nanoen.2016.08.020

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest value ever reported for any inorganic resonant cavity solar cell with a such thin semiconductor layer stack. In previously published studies our group demonstrated solar cells, which exploited the cavity effect in a-Ge:H and reached efficiencies of 2.08% [24] and 3.6% [6] in single junction devices and 4.0% [25] in a multi junction device. These results show that the p-i-n structure with a total thickness of only 40 nm can provide significant current density and that the cavity structure is a very promising way to realize efficient solar cells with ultrathin absorber layers.…”

Section: Amorphous Germanium Solar Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The MOMO reflector shows Fabry-Perot resonances due to the superposition of partial light waves inside the inner oxide layer sandwiched between the two metallic Ag layers. The peak positions of the resonances are determined by the optical thickness of this AZO layer [25,51]. A fine adjustment of the peak positions can be achieved by varying the thickness of the outer AZO layer that additionally serves as a protection for the outer Ag layer.…”

Section: Spectrally Selective Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…With the technology of the ultrathin resonant-cavity-enhanced solar cell, SSSC can be realized using only well-established, industry-proven thin film deposition processes. Moreover, the spectral selectivity can easily be tuned by only adjusting layer thicknesses [25]. In order to design an SSSC, we replace the opaque Ag back reflector of the ultrathin a-Ge:H reference cell by a spectrally selective mirror, as shown in Figure 9.…”

Section: Spectrally Selective Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In reflection the green color and in transmission the expected purple color is clearly visible. optical thickness of this AZO layer [25,51]. A fine adjustment of the peak positions can be achieved by varying the thickness of the outer AZO layer that additionally serves as a protection for the outer Ag layer.…”

Section: Spectrally Selective Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ultrathin Nano-Absorbers in Photovoltaics: Prospects and Innovative Applications

Götz¹,

Osterthun²,

Gehrke³

et al. 2020

Coatings

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Approaching the first terawatt of installations, photovoltaics (PV) are about to become the major source of electric power until the mid-century. The technology has proven to be long lasting and very versatile and today PV modules can be found in numerous applications. This is a great success of the entire community, but taking future growth for granted might be dangerous. Scientists have recently started to call for accelerated innovation and cost reduction. Here, we show how ultrathin absorber layers, only a few nanometers in thickness, together with strong light confinement can be used to address new applications for photovoltaics. We review the basics of this new type of solar cell and point out the requirements to the absorber layer material by optical simulation. Furthermore, we discuss innovative applications, which make use of the unique optical properties of the nano absorber solar cell architecture, such as spectrally selective PV and switchable photovoltaic windows.

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Section: Amorphous Germanium Solar Cellmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spectrally Selective Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spectrally Selective Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Spectrally Selective Solar Cellsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Ultrathin Nano-Absorbers in Photovoltaics: Prospects and Innovative Applications

Götz¹,

Osterthun²,

Gehrke³

et al. 2020

Coatings

Self Cite

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“…Ultrathin semiconductor materials are promising building blocks for solar photovoltaic (PV) [1] and photoelectrochemical (PEC) [2] cells and other solar energy harvesting devices, because they have reduced bulk recombination, higher internal quantum efficiency, [3,4] and exhibit new properties such as Gires-Tournois resonance, so these studies focused on designing the reflection phase shift at the interface between the semiconductor layer and the substrate [16,17] to achieve destructive interference yet with absorbed energy distribution less investigated. Our metasurface strategy is to tune not only reflection phase shift, that is, optical cavity behaviors, but also electromagnetic energy dissipation, that is, dissipative behaviors, to achieve nearperfect absorption specifically in the semiconductor film, which is of crucial importance for solar PV and PEC applications.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Planar Metasurfaces Enable High‐Efficiency Colored Perovskite Solar Cells

et al. 2018

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The achievement of perfect light absorption in ultrathin semiconductor materials is not only a long‐standing goal, but also a critical challenge for solar energy applications, and thus requires a redesigned strategy. Here, a general strategy is demonstrated both theoretically and experimentally to create a planar metasurface absorber comprising a 1D ultrathin planar semiconductor film (replacing the 2D array of subwavelength elements in classical metasurfaces), a transparent spacer, and a metallic back reflector. Guided by derived formulisms, a new type of macroscopic planar metasurface absorber is experimentally demonstrated with light near‐perfectly and exclusively absorbed by the ultrathin semiconductor film. To demonstrate the power and simplicity of this strategy, a prototype of a planar metasurface solar cell is experimentally demonstrated. Furthermore, the device model predicts that a colored planar metasurface perovskite solar cell can maintain 75% of the efficiency of its black counterpart despite the use of a perovskite film that is one order of magnitude thinner. The displayed cell colors have high purities comparable to those of state‐of‐the‐art color filters, and are insensitive to viewing angles up to 60°. The general theoretical framework in conjunction with experimental demonstrations lays the foundation for designing miniaturized, planar, and multifunctional solar cells and optoelectronic devices.

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