Ultrathin Resonant-Cavity-Enhanced Amorphous Germanium Solar Cells on ZnO Honeycomb Electrodes

Lattyak, Colleen; Ravekes, Regina-Elisabeth; Steenhoff, Volker; Vehse, Martin; Agert, Carsten

doi:10.1109/jphotov.2017.2762527

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 28 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: 98%

Ultrathin Nano-Absorbers in Photovoltaics: Prospects and Innovative Applications

Götz¹,

Osterthun²,

Gehrke³

et al. 2020

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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: 98%

Ultrathin Nano-Absorbers in Photovoltaics: Prospects and Innovative Applications

Götz¹,

Osterthun²,

Gehrke³

et al. 2020

Coatings

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“…The additional roughness does not decrease the cavity effect since it is angular stable 43 , and may even improve the absorption. 44 After showing that switchable light absorption is achieved in a simplified layer stack, the optical properties of the device layer stack presented in Figure 1 (a) are studied. We demonstrate that the transmission and absorption of the p-i-n solar cell structure is switchable based on the same principle as shown before and validate our optical model by comparing it to experimental measurements.…”

Section: Optical Properties Of the Switchable Cavitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Switchable Photocurrent Generation in an Ultrathin Resonant Cavity Solar Cell

Götz¹,

Lengert²,

Osterthun³

et al. 2020

ACS Photonics

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Fabry-Perot type resonant nanocavities allow for broadband enhancement of light absorption in ultra-thin absorber layers. By introducing a switchable mirror, these thin film structures can be used as unique optical devices enabling interesting applications with switchable absorption. We use a thin film photovoltaic layer stack based on an amorphous germanium absorber layer and combine it with a thin Mg/Pd mirror to create a switchable solar cell. In this work we demonstrate, how we can switch the light absorption and hence the photocurrent generation of the thin film solar cell by changing the refractive index of Mg, due to hydrogen absorption. Our results show, how optical resonances in the absorber can be switched "on / off" by the change of optical properties of the magnesium reflector. The multi-layer system can be switched from a light absorbing and photocurrent generating state to a transparent window state with excellent color neutrality. We emphasize our study as an important step towards the realization of switchable photovoltaic windows, which paves the way for larger scale building integrated photovoltaic applications.

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“…Ge solar cells have also been used in thermal and photovoltaic applications [12][13][14]. Ultrathin hydrogenated amorphous Ge (a-Ge:H) absorbent with ultrathin resonator-reinforced solar cells can replace microcrystalline siliconabsorbent Si thin-film solar cells with a thick micron [15]. Bahman prepared high-efficiency heterojunction solar cells with a conversion productivity of 5.9% and 7.2%, respectively, on n-type and P-type crystal Ge substrates [16].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Based on Ultrathin PEDOT:PSS/c-Ge Solar Cells Design and Their Photoelectric Performance

Yang

et al. 2021

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In recent years, nanostructures have improved the performance of solar cells and are regarded as the most promising microstructures. The optical properties of PEDOT:PSS/c-Ge hybrid solar cells (HSCs) based on the octagon germanium nanoparticles (O-GNPs) were numerically analyzed using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The optimal structure of the hybrid solar cell is determined by changing the thickness of the organic layer and structural parameters of nanoparticles to enhance the optical absorption and eventually achieve high broadband absorption. By changing the structure parameter of O-GNPs, we studied its effect on solar cells. The optimization of geometric parameters is based on maximum absorption. The light absorption of our optimized HSCs is basically above 90% between 200 and 1500 nm. PEDOT:PSS is placed on top of O-GNPs to transmit the holes better, allowing O-GNPs to capture a lot of photons, to increase absorbance value properties in the AM1.5 solar spectral irradiated region. The transmittance is increased by adding poly-methyl methacrylate (PMMA). At the same time, the electrical characteristics of Ge solar cells were simulated by DEVICE, and short-circuit current (Jsc), open-circuit voltage (Voc), maximum power (Pmax), filling coefficient (FF) and photoelectric conversion efficiency (PCE) were obtained. According to the optimization results after adjusting the structural parameters, the maximum short-circuit current is 44.32 mA/cm2; PCE is 7.84 mW/cm2; FF is 69%. The results show that the O-GNPs have a good light trapping effect, and the structure design has great potential for the absorption of HSCs; it is believed that the conversion efficiency will be further improved through further research.

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Ultrathin Resonant-Cavity-Enhanced Amorphous Germanium Solar Cells on ZnO Honeycomb Electrodes

Cited by 14 publications

References 28 publications

Ultrathin Nano-Absorbers in Photovoltaics: Prospects and Innovative Applications

Ultrathin Nano-Absorbers in Photovoltaics: Prospects and Innovative Applications

Switchable Photocurrent Generation in an Ultrathin Resonant Cavity Solar Cell

Based on Ultrathin PEDOT:PSS/c-Ge Solar Cells Design and Their Photoelectric Performance

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