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Photonic crystal enhanced light-trapping in thin film solar cells

J. Appl. Phys. 103, 093102 (2008); doi:10.1063/1.2908212

Published 1 May 2008

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Dayu Zhou1 and Rana Biswas2
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Microelectronics Research Center, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
2Departments of Physics and Astronomy, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Microelectronics Research Center and Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
We utilize photonic crystals to simulate enhanced light-trapping in a-Si:H thin film solar cells. A one dimensional photonic crystal or distributed Bragg reflector with alternating dielectric layers acts as low loss backreflector. A two dimensional photonic crystal between the absorber layer and the Bragg reflector diffracts light at oblique angles within the absorber. The photonic crystal geometry is optimized to obtain maximum absorption. The photonic crystal provides lossless diffraction of photons, increasing the photon path length within the absorber layer. The simulation predicts significantly enhanced photon harvesting between 600 and 775  nm below the band edge, and an absorption increase by more than a factor of 10 near the band edge. The optical path length ratio can exceed the classical limit predicted for randomly roughened scattering surfaces at most wavelengths near the band edge. The optical modeling is performed with a rigorous scattering matrix approach where Maxwell's equations are solved in Fourier space. ©2008 American Institute of Physics
History: Received 29 December 2007; accepted 19 February 2008; published 1 May 2008
Permalink: http://link.aip.org/link/?JAPIAU/103/093102/1

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KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords
PACS
  • 84.60.Jt
    Photoelectric conversion: solar cells and arrays
  • 42.70.Qs
    Photonic bandgap materials
  • 68.47.Fg
    Semiconductor surfaces
  • YEAR: 2008

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PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN:
0021-8979 (print)   1089-7550 (online)
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