Related papers: Absorbing photonic crystals for thin film photovol…
Scattering from metal nanoparticles near their localized plasmon resonance; especially, the resonances of noble metals which are mostly in the visible or infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum; is a way of improving light absorption…
Theoretically and experimentally we have proved the existence of optimal thickness of the porous layer used as an anti-reflection coating in solar cells. We have taken into account the joint mechanisms of generation and recombination of…
We optimized micro-holes in a thin slab for fast Si photodetectors at wavelength 800-950nm. Lateral modes are shown to be responsible for the effective light trapping. Small disorder and cone hole shapes helped achieve uniform quantum…
Future laser-interferometric gravitational wave detectors (GWDs) will potentially employ test mass mirrors from crystalline silicon and a laser wavelength of $1550\,\rm{nm}$, which corresponds to a photon energy below the silicon bandgap.…
Epitaxially-grown quantum well and quantum dot solar cells suffer from weak light absorption, strongly limiting their performance. Light trapping based on optical resonances is particularly relevant for such devices to increase light…
The absorption spectra of silicon nanowires (SiNW) are calculated using semi-empirical $sp^{3}d^{5}s^{*}$ tight binding (TB) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) methods. The role of diameter, wave function symmetry, strain and…
Reflection and refraction of light can be used to trap small dielectric particles in the geometrical optics regime. Absorption of light is usually neglected in theoretical calculations, but it is known that it occurs in the optical trapping…
This paper presents modelled results for optical absorption in ultra-thin films of nickel, gold and silver across the solar spectrum. It is found in the case of nickel there is an optimum thickness for maximum solar absorption around…
We present a systematic study of the photo-absorption spectra of various Si$_{n}$H$_{m}$ clusters (n=1-10, m=1-14) using the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). The method uses a real-time, real-space implementation of TDDFT…
Nano-scaled metallic or dielectric structures may provide various ways to trap light into thin-film solar cells for improving the conversion efficiency. In most schemes, the textured active layers are involved into light trapping structures…
The photomolecular effect has been hypothesized to enhance evaporation of water at visible wavelengths. This study develops a measurement technique to investigate its presence and magnitude at the liquid-vapor interface of water. The…
Light trapping in planar ultrathin-film solar cells is limited due to a small number of optical modes available in the thin-film slab. A nanostructured thin-film design could surpass this limit by providing broadband increase in the local…
In this paper, we simulate a front surface inverted pyramidal grating texture on 2 to 400 micron thick silicon and optimize it to derive maximum photocurrent density from the cell. We identify a one size fits all front grating period of…
We perform linear and non-linear photon absorption calculations in topological insulator ultra-thin films on a substrate. Due to the unique band structure of the coupled topological surface states, novel features are observed for suitable…
Thin film solar cells have been attractive for decades in advanced green technology platforms due to its possibilities to be integrated with buildings and on-chip applications. However, the bottleneck issues involved to consider the current…
In this paper, we report on the optical absorption in porous silicon. We model the absorption process assuming that porous silicon is a pseudo 1D material system having a distribution of band gaps. We show that in order to explain the…
Light trapping for solar cells can reduce production cost and improve energy conversion efficiency. Understanding some of the basic theoretical constraints on light trapping is therefore of fundamental importance. Here, we develop a general…
The improvement of light absorption in Si/BeSe$_{0.41}$Te$_{0.59}$ heterostructures for solar cell applications is studied theoretically. First, using simple approaches we found that light absorption could be improved in a single…
We study electromagnetic properties of periodic composite structures, such as photonic crystals, involving lossy components. We show that in many cases a properly designed periodic structure can dramatically suppress the losses associated…
Encapsulation layers are explored for passivating the surfaces of silicon to reduce optical absorption in the 1500-nm wavelength band. Surface-sensitive test structures consisting of microdisk resonators are fabricated for this purpose.…