Related papers: Solar Superabsorption of Semiconductor Materials
Composite light-trapping structures offer a promising approach to achieving broadband absorption and high efficiency in thin-film solar cells (TFSCs) in order to accelerate sustainable energy solutions. As the leading material in thin-film…
This work theoretically analyzes the sound absorption properties of a chirped multi-layer porous material including transmission, in particular showing the broadband unidirectional absorption properties of the system. Using the combination…
Absorption and scattering of electromagnetic waves by dielectric media are of fundamental importance in many branches of physics. In this Letter we analytically derived the ultimate upper limits for the absorbed and scattered powers by any…
At visible and infrared frequencies, metals show tantalizing promise for strong subwavelength resonances, but material loss typically dampens the response. We derive fundamental limits to the optical response of absorptive systems, bounding…
The photosensitivity of silicon is inherently very low in the visible electromagnetic spectrum, and it drops rapidly beyond 800 nm in near-infrared wavelengths. Herein, we have experimentally demonstrated a technique utilizing…
We use a rigorous electromagnetic approach to analyze the fundamental limit of light-trapping enhancement in grating structures. This limit can exceed the bulk limit of 4n^2, but has significant angular dependency. We explicitly show that…
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 demonstrate, for the first time, a spatially dependent metamaterial perfect absorber operating in the infrared regime. We achieve an experimental absorption of 97% at a wavelength of 6.0 microns, and our results agree well with numerical…
Characterizing and controlling matter driven far from equilibrium represents a major challenge for science and technology. Here we develop a theory for the optical absorption of electronic materials driven far from equilibrium by resonant…
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…
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…
Dark photons with masses in the 1-100 eV range can be produced in the Sun and subsequently absorbed in terrestrial detectors, offering a promising avenue for probing hidden-sector physics beyond the Standard Model. In this work, we develop…
Recent developments in synthetic and supramolecular chemistry have created opportunities to design organic systems with tailored nanoscale structure for various technological applications. A key application area is the capture of light…
We examine several ways to manipulate the loss in electromagnetic cloaks, based on transformation electromagnetics. It is found that, by utilizing inherent electric and magnetic losses of metamaterials, perfect wave absorption can be…
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…
We present a new semi-analytic formalism for modeling metal absorption lines that emerge from a clumpy galactic environment, ALPACA. We predict the ''down-the-barrel'' (DTB) metal absorption line profiles and the EW of absorption at…
Optical hyperspectral imaging based on absorption and scattering of photons at the visible and adjacent frequencies denotes one of the most informative and inclusive characterization methods in material research. Unfortunately, restricted…
A finite element-based modal formulation of diffraction of a plane wave by an absorbing photonic crystal slab of arbitrary geometry is developed for photovoltaic applications. The semi-analytic approach allows efficient and accurate…
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…
Spectrally selective absorbers that maximize solar absorption and minimize thermal radiation loss are crucial for efficient solar thermal energy harvesting. However, limitations imposed by the intrinsic properties of conventional materials…