KEYWORDS: Photonic crystals, Silicon, Absorption, Solar cells, Finite-difference time-domain method, Silicon solar cells, Thin film solar cells, Crystals, Antireflective coatings, Thin films
Nanostructured active or absorbing layers of solar cells, including photonic crystals and wire arrays, have been increasingly explored as potential options to enhance performance of thin film solar cells because of their unique ability to control light. We show that 2D photonic crystals can improve light trapping by an enhanced density of optical states and improved incoupling, and demonstrate, using FDTD simulation, absorption enhancements in 200nm thick crystalline silicon solar cells of up to 205% from λ = 300nm to 1100nm compared to a planar cell with an optimized two-layer antireflection coating. We report here a method to further enhance absorption by introducing a lattice of coupled defect modes into the photonic crystal, which modify the available optical states in the absorber. Our results show that 2D photonic crystals are a viable and rich research option for light trapping in thin film photovoltaics.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.