Related papers: Angular constraint on light-trapping absorption en…
Research into the efficiency of photosynthetic light harvesting has focused on two factors: (1) entanglement of chromophores, and (2) environmental noise. While chromophores are conjugated $\pi$-bonding molecules with strongly correlated…
We study the interaction of a light beams carrying angular momentum with a single, trapped and well localized ion. We provide a detailed calculation of selection rules and excitation probabilities for quadrupole transitions. The results…
We employ a detailed balance approach to model a single-junction solar cell with a realistic narrow-band, non-unity-quantum-yield upconverter. As upconverter bandwidths are increased from 0 to 0.5 eV, maximum cell efficiencies increase from…
Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are able to concentrate both direct and diffuse solar radiation and this ability has led to great interest in using them to improve solar energy capture when coupled to traditional photovoltaics (PV).…
Elemental selenium is a promising wide-bandgap ($E_\mathrm{G}\approx$ 1.95 eV) photovoltaic material for the next generation of thin-film solar cells. To realize high-efficiency selenium solar cells, it is crucial to optimize the…
The positive effects of various perturbations introduced in a bidimensional photonic-crystal patterned membrane on its integrated absorption are investigated numerically and theoretically. Two phenomena responsible for the enhanced…
Because of its low-cost, silicon is the standard material for photovoltaic conversion. Yet, its band-edge absorption spectrum is narrower than the spectrum of the solar radiation, which reduces its conversion efficiency. In this paper, it…
The effects resulting from the introduction of a controlled perturbation in a single pattern membrane on its absorption are first studied and then analyzed on the basis of band folding considerations. The interest of this approach for…
Conventional photocells suffer a fundamental efficiency threshold imposed by the principle of detailed balance, reflecting the fact that good absorbers must necessarily also be fast emitters. This limitation can be overcome by `parking' the…
When light is confined in all three directions and in dimensions of the order of the light wavelength, full discretization of the photon spectra and distinctive phenomena occur, the Purcell effect and the inhibition of emission of atoms…
The endeavor of the scientific community to maximize the possibility to harvest Sun irradiation for energy production is mainly devoted to the improvement of the power conversion efficiency of devices and to the extension of the spectral…
Since thin-film silicon solar cells have limited optical absorption, we explore the effect of a nanostructured back reflector to recycle the unabsorbed light. As a back reflector we investigate a 3D photonic band gap crystal made from…
High-quality optical resonant cavities require low optical loss, typically on the scale of parts per million. However, unintended micron-scale contaminants on the resonator mirrors that absorb the light circulating in the cavity can deform…
A film-coupled metamaterial structure is numerically investigated for enhancing the light absorption in an ultrathin photovoltaic layer of crystalline gallium arsenide (GaAs). The top subwavelength concave grating and the bottom metallic…
Much efforts are devoted to material structuring in a quest to enhance the photovoltaic effect. We show that structuring light in a way it transfers orbital angular momentum to semiconductor-based rings results in a steady charge…
Multi-junction photovoltaics provide a logical method of increasing the utilization of solar power for a given area. However, their current design and fabrication methods invoke numerous material and cost complexities that limit their…
Thin films are preferred for high photocurrent conversion efficiency, but strong photon absorption at photon energies below the bandgap (near and shortwave infrared) typically requires thicker semiconductor layers. To address this tradeoff,…
Future generations of photoelectrodes for solar fuel generation must employ inexpensive, earth-abundant absorber materials in order to provide a large-scale source of clean energy. These materials tend to have poor electrical transport…
The phenomenological boundary conditions for the envelope wave function, which is applicable for contacts of semiconductors with the rather different crystal symmetry are proposed. It is shown that the boundary conditions are determined by…
We propose a back-reflecting scheme in order to enhance the maximum achievable current in one micron thick crystalline silicon solar cells. We perform 3-dimensional numerical investigations of the scattering properties of metallic…