Related papers: Semiconductor solar superabsorber
The ability to absorb light is indispensable for high efficient solar power generation. This places conflicting requirements on the structure of a solar cell: On one hand, it needs to have thick active layers to absorb more of the available…
Using metamaterial absorbers, we have shown that metallic layers in the absorbers do not necessarily constitute undesired resistive heating problem for photovoltaics. Tailoring the geometric skin depth of metals and employing the natural…
An ideal solar thermal absorber has a sharp transition between high and low absorptance at the wavelength where the blackbody emissive power begins to exceed the solar irradiance. However, most real selective absorbers have a fairly broad…
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…
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,…
It has gradually been recognized that incoming sunlight can be trapped within a high refractive index semiconductor, n~3.5, owing to the narrow 16degree escape cone. The solar light inside a semiconductor is 4n^2 times brighter than…
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…
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…
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…
We propose a light-trapping structure offering a significant enhancement of photovoltaic absorption in transparent organic solar cells operating at infrared while the visible light transmission keeps sufficiently high. The main mechanism of…
Broadband absorption in the visible spectrum is essential in optoelectronic applications that involve power conversion such as photovoltaics and photocatalysis. Most ultrathin broadband absorbers use parasitic plasmonic structures that…
One-dimensional lamellar gratings allow a particularly efficient way for solving Maxwell's equations by expanding the electromagnetic field in the basis of exact eigenmodes of the Helmholtz equation. Then, the solution can be expressed…
Establishing the fundamental limit of nanophotonic light-trapping schemes is of paramount importance and is becoming increasingly urgent for current solar cell research. The standard theory of light trapping demonstrated that absorption…
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…
Ultrathin solar cells reduce material usage and allow the use of lower-quality materials thanks to their one order of magnitude smaller thickness than their conventional counterparts. However, efficient photonic light-trapping is required…
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…
Optical absorption plays a central role in optoelectronic and photonic technologies. Strongly absorbing materials are thus needed for efficient and miniaturized devices. There exists, however, a fundamental limit of 50% absorptance for any…
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…
Selective solar absorbers (SSAs) with high performance are the key to concentrated solar power systems. Optical metamaterials are emerging as a promising strategy to enhance selective photon absorption, however, the high-temperature…
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…