Related papers: Ultra-Thin Metal Films for Enhanced Solar Absorpti…
Coating and reflecting thin films for energy harvesting purposes are interesting topics in both theoretical and experimental research. The thin film could help to enhance the absorption of the system via its specific optical properties…
The optical absorption of nanoscale thickness semiconductor films on top of light-trapping structures based on optical interference effects combined with spectrum-splitting structures is theoretically investigated. Nearly perfect absorption…
Thermal detectors are a cornerstone of infrared (IR) and terahertz (THz) technology due to their broad spectral range. These detectors call for suitable broad spectral absorbers with minimalthermal mass. Often this is realized by plasmonic…
Light trapping in solar cells allows for increased current and voltage, as well as reduced materials cost. It is known that in geometrical optics, a maximum 4n^2 absorption enhancement factor can be achieved by randomly texturing the…
The design and fabrication of a metal-dielectric-metal absorber that achieves strong absorption from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near-infrared (near-IR) spectrum are presented. The proposed nanostructure consists of a periodic titanium (Ti)…
We calculate the maximal absorption enhancement obtainable by guided mode excitation in a weakly absorbing dielectric slab over wide wavelength ranges. The slab mimics thin film silicon solar cells in the low absorption regime. We consider…
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…
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…
Understanding the maximal enhancement of solar absorption in semiconductor materials by light trapping promises the development of affordable solar cells. However, the conventional Lambertian limit is only valid for idealized material…
The perfect absorption of light in subwavelength thickness layers generally relies on exotic materials, metamaterials or thick metallic gratings. Here we demonstrate that total light absorption can be achieved in ultra-thin gratings…
We report on very high enhancement of thin layer's absorption through band-engineering of a photonic crystal structure. We realized amorphous silicon (aSi) photonic crystals, where slow light modes improve absorption efficiency. We show…
Simulations of metal nanopatterns embedded in a thin photovoltaic absorber show significantly enhanced absorbance within the semiconductor, with a more than 300% increase for {\lambda} = 800 nm. Integrating with AM1.5 solar irradiation,…
The maximal absorption rate of ultra-thin films is 50% under the condition that the tangential electric (or magnetic) field is almost constant across the film in symmetrical environment. However, with certain reflectors, the absorption rate…
The absorption of thin hydrogenated amorphous silicon layers can be efficiently enhanced through a controlled periodic patterning. Light is trapped through coupling with photonic Bloch modes of the periodic structures, which act as an…
Reducing device volume is one of the key requirements for advanced nanophotonic technologies, however this demand is often at odds with designing highly absorbing elements which usually require sizeable thicknesses, such as for detector and…
We study the optical and electrical properties of silver films with a graded thickness obtained through metallic evaporation in vacuum on a tilted substrate to evaluate their use as semitransparent electrical contacts. We measure their…
We study a highly controllable perfect plasmonic absorber -- a thin metamaterial layer which possess balanced electric and magnetic responses in some frequency range. We show that this regime is compatible with both metal-backed variant of…
An ultrabroad absorber based on double-ring-shaped titanium nitride (TiN) nanoresonators, which can work in high temperatures, is proposed and numerically studied. The absorber with some optimal parameters exhibits an averaged absorption of…
Absorption of light in superconducting electronics is a major limitation on the quality of circuit architectures that integrate optical components with superconducting components. A 10 nm thick film of a typical superconducting material…
In this work, a metamaterial selective solar absorber made of nanostructured titanium gratings deposited on an ultrathin MgF2 spacer and a tungsten ground film is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Normal absorptance of the…