Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group

Parasitic loss suppression in photonic and plasmonic photovoltaic light trapping structures

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the optical loss mechanisms and mitigation strategies in classical photovoltaic light trapping structures consisting of diffractive gratings integrated with a backside reflector, which couple normal incident solar radiation into guided modes in solar cells to enhance optical absorption. Parasitic absorption from metal or dielectric backside reflectors is identified to be a major loss contributor in such light trapping structures. We elucidate the optical loss mechanism based on the classical coupled mode theory. Further, a spacer design is proposed and validated through numerical simulations to significantly suppress the parasitic loss and improve solar cell performance.

© 2014 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Aperiodic and randomized dielectric mirrors: alternatives to metallic back reflectors for solar cells

Albert Lin, Yan-Kai Zhong, Sze-Ming Fu, Chi Wei Tseng, and Sheng Lun Yan
Opt. Express 22(S3) A880-A894 (2014)

Light trapping in ultrathin 25  μm exfoliated Si solar cells

Mohamed M. Hilali, Sayan Saha, Emmanuel Onyegam, Rajesh Rao, Leo Mathew, and Sanjay K. Banerjee
Appl. Opt. 53(27) 6140-6147 (2014)

Exploration of external light trapping for photovoltaic modules

Lourens van Dijk, Jorik van de Groep, Marcel Di Vece, and Ruud E. I. Schropp
Opt. Express 24(14) A1158-A1175 (2016)

Cited By

Optica participates in Crossref's Cited-By Linking service. Citing articles from Optica Publishing Group journals and other participating publishers are listed here.

Alert me when this article is cited.


Figures (4)

Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) Optical absorption in the DBR with (green line) and without (magenta line) a spacer layer between the grating and the DBR; (b) and (c) simulated electric field intensity distribution in the cell structures (b) with and (c) without a spacer layer when the phase matching condition is met; (d) schematic illustration of absorption suppression mechanism by adding the spacer layer: the diffraction order phase matched to the guided (super)modes in the DBR and hence responsible for excitation of the guided modes becomes evanescent in the low-index spacer layer, and therefore rapidly decays away from the grating. Consequently, coupling into the guided modes is minimized.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Influence of spacer layer thickness on integrated photon current (in the wavelength range of 750 nm to 900 nm) and DBR absorption in the thin c-Si solar cell structure analyzed in ([20]).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) Optical absorption in the metal reflector with (green line) and without (magenta line) a spacer layer between the grating and the metal reflector; (b) and (c) simulated electric field intensity distribution in the structures shown in Fig. 3(a) inset (b) with and (c) without the spacer layer.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Influence of spacer layer thickness on integrated photon current (in the wavelength range of 750 nm to 900 nm, green line) and aluminum absorption (magenta line) in the thin c-Si cell structure schematically shown in the inset.

Equations (2)

Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more.

m × 2 π Λ = β g m , ( m N )
m × 2 π Λ = β s p p = 2 π λ 0 ε d × ε m ε d + ε m , ( m N )
Select as filters


Select Topics Cancel
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved