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

Enhanced absorption in optically thin solar cells by scattering from embedded dielectric nanoparticles

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We present a concept for improving the efficiency of thin-film solar cells via scattering from dielectric particles. The particles are embedded directly within the semiconductor absorber material with sizes on the order of one wavelength. Importantly, this geometry is fully compatible with the use of an anti-reflective coating (ARC) to maximize light capture. The concept is demonstrated through finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations of spherical SiO2 particles embedded within a 1.0 µm layer of crystalline silicon (c-Si) utilizing a 75 nm ARC of Si3N4. Several geometries are presented, with gains in absorbed photon flux occurring in the red end of the spectrum where silicon absorption is weak. The total integrated absorption of incident photon flux across the visible AM-1.5 spectrum is on the order of 5-10% greater than the same geometry without any dielectric scatterers.

©2010 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article

Corrections

James R. Nagel and Michael A. Scarpulla, "Enhanced absorption in optically-thin solar cells by scattering from embedded dielectric nanoparticles: erratum," Opt. Express 18, A307-A307 (2010)
https://opg.optica.org/oe/abstract.cfm?uri=oe-18-S3-A307

More Like This
Multilayer nanoparticle arrays for broad spectrum absorption enhancement in thin film solar cells

Aravind Krishnan, Snehal Das, Siva Rama Krishna, and Mohammed Zafar Ali Khan
Opt. Express 22(S3) A800-A811 (2014)

Absorption enhancement in methylammonium lead iodide perovskite solar cells with embedded arrays of dielectric particles

Alberto Jiménez-Solano, Sol Carretero-Palacios, and Hernán Míguez
Opt. Express 26(18) A865-A878 (2018)

Supplementary Material (2)

Media 1: MOV (3760 KB)     
Media 2: MOV (3768 KB)     

Cited By

Optica participates in Crossref's Cited-By Linking service. Citing articles from Optica Publishing Group journals and other participating publishers are listed here.

Alert me when this article is cited.


Figures (4)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Simulated photon absorbencies of the thin-film silicon cell with an ARC. Figure (a) summarizes the baseline solar cell with no dielectric scatterer; (b) 6.3% gain using a single SiO2 sphere with diameter D = 100 nm centered at a depth of z = 150 nm; (c) 12.4% gain using a second sphere placed at a depth of z = 650 nm; (d) 7.4% gain using a hemisphere placed at the c-Si surface; (e) 2.2% gain using an Au sphere placed atop the c-Si with no ARC, but still 26.9% less than part (a); (f) 2.1% loss using an Au sphere (D = 100 nm) placed atop the ARC.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Mie scattering efficiency of SiO2 spheres of diameters D indicated embedded in an infinite medium of c-Si.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 Peak electric field intensity profile (arbitrary units) at a wavelength of λ = 700 nm for (a) single particle in isolation (Media 1) and (b) periodic array of particles (Media 2). Similar results may be seen across the entire spectrum. Time-domain animations of these images are available in the supporting online material.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Efficiency trends versus particle density for periodic arrays of D = 200 nm diameter spheres of SiO2 embedded in c-Si at a depth of 150 nm. The points along the red vertical line at 6.25 x 108 / cm2 (400 nm spacing) summarize the absorption changes for the geometries in Fig. 1. At 2.5 x 109 / cm2 (200 nm), the dielectric spheres touch.

Equations (2)

Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more.

A ( z , λ ) = T ( 0 , λ ) T ( z , λ ) ,
S ( z , λ ) = A ( z , λ ) Φ o ( λ ) ,
Select as filters


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