Minimizing solar cell reflection loss through surface texturing and implementation of 1D and 2D subwavelength dielectric gratings

W. Wang; A. Mehrotra; A. Alemu; A. Freundlich

doi:10.1117/12.911826

21 February 2012 Minimizing solar cell reflection loss through surface texturing and implementation of 1D and 2D subwavelength dielectric gratings

W. Wang, A. Mehrotra, A. Alemu, A. Freundlich

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8256, Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices; 82561A (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.911826
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2012, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

In our simulation of reflection losses for 1D and 2D subwavelength dielectric grating, surface texturing was done while comparing reflection losses with various incident angles for photovoltaic materials like Si and III-Vs GaAs. Transfer matrix formalism is modeled by treating each grating's effective refractive index as being composed of several layers of varying refractive indexes. Discrete parameterization on intervals with different profiles such as 1D rectangles and triangle, as well as 2D pyramids and hemispheres are used to minimize power reflected for black body radiation. This simulation treats each layer to be uniform, which requires the texturing to be in the subwavelength region. We compared the reflection loss and incident angle dependence for dielectric layers, dielectric gratings, and the combination of both dielectric layers and gratings, and found that with gratings, reflection losses are less dependent on incident angle. By optimizing the texturing and design parameters, we can obtain reflection losses around 1% for spectral range of solar cell with a very small increase in incidence angle.

Citation Download Citation

W. Wang, A. Mehrotra, A. Alemu, and A. Freundlich "Minimizing solar cell reflection loss through surface texturing and implementation of 1D and 2D subwavelength dielectric gratings", Proc. SPIE 8256, Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices, 82561A (21 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.911826

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