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Light trapping photonic crystal (PhC) patterns on the surface of Si solar cells provides a novel opportunity to approach the theoretical efficiency limit of 32.3%, for light-to-electrical power conversion with a single junction cell. This…
We compare the behavior of propagating and evanescent light waves in absorbing media with that of electrons in the presence of inelastic scattering. The imaginary part of the dielectric constant results primarily in an exponential decay of…
We present a general principle for the rational design of dielectric optical antennas with optimal solar absorption enhancement: leaky mode engineering. This builds upon our previous study that demonstrates the solar absorption of a…
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…
In this article, we theoretically demonstrate multilevel impurity photovoltaic effect in an efficient silicon dual-homojunction solar cell that ensures an extended absorption of longer wavelength light. Along with suitable contact work…
A new thermodynamic limit for the open circuit voltage of solar cells that includes thermalization is obtained in terms of photon entropy. A simple graphical construction makes it possible to link this limit to the existing limits for…
We theoretically study absorption by an undoped graphene layer decorated with arrays of small particles. We discuss periodic and random arrays within a common formalism, which predicts a maximum absorption of $50\%$ for suspended graphene…
Emission and absorption of light lie at the heart of light-matter interaction. Although emission and absorption rates are regarded as intrinsic properties of atoms and molecules, various ways to modify these rates have been sought in…
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…
We closely study the local amplifications of visible light on a thin dielectric slab presenting a sub-wavelength array of small, rectangular, bottom-closed holes. The high-quality Fabry-Perot resonances of eigen modes which vertically…
Parabolic solar dish concentrator with sphere receiver is less studied. We present an analytic function to calculate the intercept factor of the system with real sun bright distribution and Gaussian distribution, the results indicate that…
We predict and experimentally demonstrate a new type of collective (cooperative) coupling effect where a disordered atomic ensemble absorbs light with a rise-time longer (i. e., at a rate slower) than what is dictated by single-atom…
The maximal concentration limit of solar radiation for photovoltaic applications is assumed to be constant, at Cmax\approx46,000 suns. This limit is easily found via a geometrical application of the 2nd law of thermodynamics to a radiation…
It is known that rare-gas or metal clusters absorb incident laser energy very efficiently. However, due to the intricate dependencies on all the laser and cluster parameters it is difficult to predict under which circumstances ionization…
Broadband, efficient and fast conversion of light to electricity is crucial for sensing and clean energy. Here we reveal the largest observed bulk photo-voltaic effect (BPVE), an intrinsic mechanism predicted to be ultrafast and exceed the…
The bulk photovoltaic effect (BPVE) leads to directed photo-currents and photo-voltages in bulk materials. Unlike photo-voltages in p-n junction solar cells that are limited by carrier recombination to values below the bandgap energy of the…
Recently, there has been plenty of work in designing and fabricating materials with an effective negative refractive index. Veselago realized that a slab of material with a refractive index of -1 would act as a lens. Pendry suggested that…
We derive the thermodynamic limits of harvesting power from the outgoing thermal radiation from the ambient to the cold outer space. The derivations are based on a duality relation between thermal engines that harvest solar radiation and…
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…
A new type of resonant light absorption by a small particle (nanocluster) is reported. The problem cannot be described within the commonly used dipole scattering approximation and should be studied with methods based upon the exact Mie…