Abstract

We have proposed a light-trapping concept for photovoltaic (PV) cells under monochromatic illumination with restricted incident angles. We employed a configuration consisting of a shortpass filter (SPF) on the front surface and a diffuse reflector on the rear surface of the cell. The SPF was designed so that it functioned as a polarization-insensitive angle-selective filter. We fabricated 30–80-μm-thick crystalline silicon samples for incident angles changing within 30°, and analyzed the measured results using a ray-trace simulation with the Monte Carlo method. The ratio of the absorbed intensity to the 1064 nm illumination intensity was 0.69–0.85, which was higher than those equipped with antireflection coatings instead of the SPFs by 0.19–0.13. Thus, we have proven the light-trapping concept of the SPF/diffuse reflector configuration for monochromatic illumination. The PV cells could be applied to wireless power supply, in particular from solar-pumped lasers.

© 2017 Optical Society of America

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