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Multi-scale and angular analysis of ray-optical light trapping schemes in thin-film solar cells: Micro lens array, V-shaped configuration, and double parabolic trapper

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Abstract

An efficient light trapping scheme is a key to enhancing the power conversion efficiency (PCE) of thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cells by compensating for the insufficient light absorption. To handle optical components from nano-scale to micro-scale seamlessly, a multi-scale optical simulation is carefully designed in this study and is used to qualitatively analyze the light trapping performances of a micro lens array (MLA), a V-shaped configuration, and the newly proposed scheme, which is termed a double parabolic trapper (DPT) according to both daily and annual movement of the sun. DPT has the potential to enhance the PCE significantly, from 5.9% to 8.9%, for PCDTBT:PC70BM-based polymer solar cells by perfectly trapping the incident light between two parabolic PV cells.

©2013 Optical Society of America

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Figures (4)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) Absorption characteristics of the active layer according to the propagation angle variation (represented in the inset) for a thin-film PV using PCDTBT:PC70BM as an active material for TE (open) and TM (closed) polarized light with a wavelength of 500nm. The purple and green lines indicate the incoherent and coherent calculation, respectively. (b) n (real part) and k (imaginary part) values of the refractive indices used in the optical simulations. (c) Description of the annual (θa) and daily (θd) incident angle variation, where a 1D array structure is aligned along the east–west line.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 (a) Light trapping system using MLA, (b) normalized Jsc variations with the variations of θa and θd for MLA-PV with different widths over the period (Went). Ray-traced cross-section images for θa = 0° are shown in the inset when θd = 0°, 30° and 60°. To obtain a clear picture, the bottom cell and blocking mirrors were assumed to absorb the light for ray-tracing perfectly. (c) The contours of points (θa, θd), where the normalized Jsc becomes 1 for MLA-PVs when Went = 0.10 and 0.15, respectively.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) V-shaped light trapping configuration, (b) normalized Jsc variation with the variation of θa (where θd = 0°) for V-shaped PVs with the different vertex angles (θv).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 (a) Geometrical characteristic of a parabola concentrating all of the incident rays parallel to the axis into a focus or reflecting them in a reverse manner (above), and DPT structure for perfect light trapping (below), (b) normalized Jsc variation with the variation of θa (θd = 0°) for DPT-PV. Ray-traced images are also shown when θa = 0° and ± 23.5°, where only rays having power greater than 10% of an initial power appear.

Tables (1)

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Table 1 Summary of the light trapping characteristics for the MLA, V-shaped and DPT configurations

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