Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

A complete simulation of nanostructured solar cells considering absorption and photoconversion processes

Not Accessible

Your library or personal account may give you access

Abstract

Nanowires and nanoholes have been widely employed in recent years for photovoltaic applications due to their promising potentials in efficient light-trapping and photoconversion in low cost. Extensive experimental, theoretical, and numerical efforts have been paid in order to promote these new kinds of solar cells for realistic applications. However, the device performance reported is still far from expectation, which is strongly constrained by the strong surface carrier recombination due to the dramatically increased junction facet area. Therefore, the comprehensive studies for nanowire and nanohole solar cells are strongly desired.

In the design of nanostructured solar cells, the detailed electrical mechanisms have seldom been included due to the numerical challenge in simulating both optical absorption and carrier transport behaviors in an extensive way, i.e., to mimic the microscopic processes of photons, electrons, and holes in both frequency and spatial domains, leading to a substantial discrepancy between prediction and reality. We present a complete optoelectronic simulation for nanowire and nanohole solar cells through addressing electromagnetic and carrier-transport response in a coupled finite-element method. The important mechanisms in optical and electrical domains, including optical resonance, carrier diffusion, carrier drift, carrier bulk/surface recombination, etc., have been included comprehensively into the simulation. For the special nanowire and nanohole solar cells with large surface area, the effects of surface recombination are specifically quantified and compared for cells under various radial and axial doping profiles.

© 2015 Optical Society of America

PDF Article
More Like This
Electrical consideration and optimization of GaAs solar cell with rear metallic grating

Aixue Shang and Xiaofeng Li
RTu4C.4 Optics for Solar Energy (SOLED) 2015

Light-harvesting and photoconversion in a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem solar cells based on top and intermediate photonic crystal designs

Cheng Zhang, Shaolong Wu, Yaohui Zhan, and Xiaofeng Li
JTu2C.3 Optical Nanostructures and Advanced Materials for Photovoltaics (SOLED) 2015

Management of Photo-excited Carriers in Light Trapping Nanostructured Si Solar Cells

Dong-Wook Kim, Yunae Cho, Eunah Kim, Hyeong Ho Park, and Joondong Kim
NS3B.4 Novel Optical Materials and Applications (NOMA) 2015

Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved