Light trapping in ZnO nanowire arrays covered with an absorbing shell for solar cells

Jérôme Michallon; Davide Bucci; Alain Morand; Mauro Zanuccoli; Vincent Consonni; Anne Kaminski-Cachopo

doi:10.1364/OE.22.0A1174

Optics Express
Vol. 22,
Issue S4,
pp. A1174-A1189
(2014)
•https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.22.0A1174

Light trapping in ZnO nanowire arrays covered with an absorbing shell for solar cells

Jérôme Michallon, Davide Bucci, Alain Morand, Mauro Zanuccoli, Vincent Consonni, and Anne Kaminski-Cachopo

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Jérôme Michallon, Davide Bucci, Alain Morand, Mauro Zanuccoli, Vincent Consonni, and Anne Kaminski-Cachopo, "Light trapping in ZnO nanowire arrays covered with an absorbing shell for solar cells," Opt. Express 22, A1174-A1189 (2014)

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Table of Contents Category
- Light Trapping for Photovoltaics
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About this Article
History
- Original Manuscript: January 17, 2014
- Revised Manuscript: April 1, 2014
- Manuscript Accepted: May 14, 2014
- Published: June 19, 2014

Abstract

The absorption properties of ZnO nanowire arrays covered with a semiconducting absorbing shell for extremely thin absorber solar cells are theoretically investigated by optical computations of the ideal short-circuit current density with three-dimensional rigorous coupled wave analysis. The effects of nanowire geometrical dimensions on the light trapping and absorption properties are reported through a comprehensive optical mode analysis. It is shown that the high absorptance of these heterostructures is driven by two different regimes originating from the combination of individual nanowire effects and nanowire arrangement effects. In the short wavelength regime, the absorptance is likely dominated by optical modes efficiently coupled with the incident light and interacting with the nearby nanowires (i.e. diffraction), induced by the period of core shell ZnO nanowire arrays. In contrast, in the long wavelength regime, the absorptance is governed by key optically guided modes, related to the diameter of individual core shell ZnO nanowires.

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Fig. 1 Schematic view of (a) the ZnO/CdTe core shell NW arrays on FTO/glass substrate and of (b) semi-infinite NW arrays for the optical mode analysis.

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Fig. 2 (a) Ideal J_sc map as a function of P and D/P. (b) Ideal J_sc as a function of D/P for the two sets of geometrical dimensions A and B.

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Fig. 3 Absorptance characteristics for ZnO/CdTe core shell NW arrays with D = 200 nm and various periods (i.e., set of geometrical dimensions A).

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Fig. 4 (a) The real part of the normalized propagation constant (i.e.

β_{r} λ / 2 π

) and (b) the absorptance for the 5 selected optical modes found for the optimal geometrical dimensions with D = 200 nm and P = 350 nm. The real part of the refractive indices (i.e. n) for ZnO and CdTe is also reported in (a) for comparison. (c) Maps of the modulus of the electric field E_x for the optical mode 4 for various wavelength

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Fig. 5 Characteristics of the key optically guided mode found for the optimal geometrical dimensions with D = 200 nm and P = 350 nm. (a) Absorptance versus wavelength for the key optically guided mode, for the ZnO/CdTe nano-fibre array, for the array comprising both the ZnO/CdTe nano-fibre and the CdTe cap, and for the complete structure. (b) Electric field distribution factors ρ_x and ρ_y versus wavelength and (c) coupling factor of the key optically guided mode versus wavelength. (d) Maps of the modulus of the electric field E_x for the key optically guided mode represented for various wavelengths.

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Fig. 6 Monochromatic and polychromatic radial generation rate maps in the ZnO/CdTe core shell NW calculated for the optimal geometrical dimensions with D = 200 nm and P = 350 nm. (a) Linear scale within the first 600 nm from the top of the CdTe cap and (b) logarithmic scale for the whole NW.

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Fig. 7 Absorptance of the key optically guided mode 1 (solid line) and of the ZnO/CdTe nano-fibre arrays (dotted line) for the set of geometrical dimensions B (i.e., P = 600 nm and different values of D). (a) For D = 150, 175, 200 nm and (b-c) for D = 300, 400, 480, 550 nm.

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Fig. 8 Characteristics of the key optically guided modes found for the geometrical dimensions with D = 480 nm and P = 600 nm. (a) Absorptance versus wavelength for the key optically guided modes (k.m.) and for the ZnO/CdTe nano-fibre array. (b) Electric field distribution factors ρ_x and ρ_y versus wavelength and (c) coupling factor of the key optically guided modes versus wavelength. (d) Maps of the module of the electric field E_x for the key optically guided modes represented for various wavelengths.

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Fig. 9 Convergence of both the ideal J_sc and the surface integrated generation rate G versus the harmonic number for both Fourier series. It has been calculated for the ZnO/CdTe NW arrays with P = 350 nm and D = 210 nm. The reference value is calculated with 25x25 harmonics.

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Fig. 10 Procedure to compute the radial generation rate map. 3D generation rate is averaged over a circle perimeter to determine the radial generation rate.

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Tables (1)

Table 1 Number of optically guided modes (resp. key optically guided modes) obtained for different D and λ, for the set of geometrical dimensions B with P = 600 nm.

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Equations (9)

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E_{x}^{mode} = C (x, y) \cdot \exp (j \cdot ω \cdot t) \cdot \exp (- j \cdot β \cdot z),

A (λ) = 1 - R (λ) - T (λ),

J_{sc} = \frac{q}{hc} \int A (λ) I_{A M 1.5 g} (λ) λ d λ,

ρ_{x} = {\frac{\int_{CdTe} {| E (x, y) |}^{2} d x}{\int_{all} {| E (x, y) |}^{2} d x} |}_{y = middle} ρ_{y} = {\frac{\int_{CdTe} {| E (x, y) |}^{2} dy}{\int_{all} {| E (x, y) |}^{2} dy} |}_{x = middle},

G (x, y, z, λ) = \frac{π \cdot ℑ [ε (x, y, z, λ)] \cdot {| E (x, y, z, λ) |}^{2}}{h},

P_{absorbed} = {| S w |}^{2} P_{modal} [1 - \exp (- 2 ℑ (β) L)],

G (r, θ, z, λ) = \frac{π \cdot ℑ [ε (r, θ, z, λ)] \cdot {| E (r, θ, z, λ) |}^{2}}{h},

G (r, z, λ) = \frac{1}{2 π} \int_{θ = 0}^{2 π} G (r, θ, z, λ) d θ,

G (r, z) = \int_{λ}^{} \frac{I_{AM1 .5g} (λ)}{I_{i ncident}} G (r, z, λ) d λ,

λ(nm)
		430	500	600	700	800
D(nm)	150	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)
	175	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)
	200	3 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)
	300	8 (3)	7 (3)	2 (1)	2 (1)	2 (1)
	400	14 (3)	7 (3)	7 (3)	2 (1)	2 (1)
	480	14 (4)	9 (4)	7 (4)	6 (4)	5 (2)
	550	17 (6)	9 (4)	7 (4)	7 (3)	6 (2)

Abstract

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Figures (10)

Tables (1)

Equations (9)

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