Efficient light-trapping in ultrathin GaAs solar cells using quasi-random photonic crystals
Abstract
Ultrathin solar cells reduce material usage and allow the use of lower-quality materials thanks to their one order of magnitude smaller thickness than their conventional counterparts. However, efficient photonic light-trapping is required to harvest the incident light efficiently for an otherwise insufficient absorber thickness. Quasi-random photonic crystals are predicted to have high efficient light-trapping while being more robust under angle and thickness variations than simple photonic crystals. Here we experimentally demonstrate a light-trapping solution based on quasi-random photonic crystals fabricated by polymer blend lithography. We control the average lattice parameter by modifying the spin-coating speed. We demonstrate an ultrathin GaAs cell of 260 nm with a rear quasi-random pattern with submicron features, and a Jsc =26.4 mA/cm2 and an efficiency of 22.35% under the global solar spectrum.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2202.03106,
title = {Efficient light-trapping in ultrathin GaAs solar cells using quasi-random photonic crystals},
author = {Jeronimo Buencuerpo and Theresa E. Saenz and Mark Steger and Michelle Young and Emily L. Warren and John F. Geisz and Myles A. Steiner and Adele C. Tamboli},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2202.03106},
year = {2022}
}