Work

Improving thin-film crystalline silicon solar cell efficiencies with photonic crystals

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: Most photovoltaic (solar) cells are made from crystalline silicon (c-Si), which has an indirect band gap. This gives rise to weak absorption of one-third of usable solar photons. Therefore, improved light trapping schemes are needed, particularly for c-Si thin film solar cells. Here, a photonic crystal-based light-trapping approach is analyzed and compared to previous approaches. For a solar cell made of a 2 mum thin film of c-Si and a 6 bilayer distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) in the back, power generation can be enhanced by a relative amount of 24.0% by adding a 1D grating, 26.3% by replacing the DBR with a six-period triangular photonic crystal made of air holes in silicon, 31.3% by a DBR plus 2D grating, and 26.5% by replacing it with an eight-period inverse opal photonic crystal.

Source: Optics Express

DOI: 10.1364/oe.15.016986

Authors: Peter Bermel, Chiyan Luo, Lirong Zeng, Lionel C. Kimerling, John D. Joannopoulos

Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Silicon and Solar Cell Technologies

Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Affordable and clean energy

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,270