Related papers: Semiconductor solar superabsorber
The rate at which matter emits or absorbs light can be modified by its environment, as dramatically exemplified by the widely-studied phenomenon of superradiance. The reverse process, superabsorption, is harder to demonstrate due to the…
Recently developed classes of monocrystalline silicon solar microcells (u-cell) can be assembled into modules with characteristics (i.e., mechanically flexible forms, compact concentrator designs, and high-voltage outputs) that would be…
Solution-processed amorphous silicon is a promising material for semiconductor devices. Unfortunately, its manufacturing leaves a high density of defects in the layer, which can be reduced by a treatment with hydrogen radicals. Here, we…
The transparency of silicon in the infrared region enables the design of nano/microstructures for implementation in devices to harvest the infrared (IR) part of the solar spectrum. Herein we report a strategy that uses arrays of inverted…
The absorption of electromagnetic radiation by a planar structure, consisting of a three-layer dielectric-metal-dielectric coating on a metal back-reflector is analysed. The conditions for total absorption are derived. Our analysis shows…
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…
We suggest a novel concept of efficient light-trapping structures for thin-film solar cells based on arrays of planar nanoantennas operating far from plasmonic resonances. The operation principle of our structures relies on the excitation…
The realization of a semiconductor near-unity absorber in the infrared will provide new capabilities to transform applications in sensing, health, imaging, and quantum information science, especially where portability is required.…
We investigate the angular behavior of the upper bound of absorption provided by the guided modes in thin film solar cells. We show that the 4n^2 limit can be potentially exceeded in a wide angular and wavelength range using two-dimensional…
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…
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…
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…
A high theoretical efficiency of 47.2% was achieved by a novel combination of In0.51Ga0.49P, GaAs, In0.24Ga0.76As and In0.19Ga0.81Sb subcell layers in a simulated quadruple junction solar cell under 1 sun concentration. The electronic…
Nanowire arrays exhibit efficient light coupling and strong light trapping, making them well suited to solar cell applications. The processes that contribute to their absorption are interrelated and highly dispersive, so the only current…
Photonic band structure of metal-dielectric and semiconductor-dielectric layered structures are studied in the presence of a strong absorption. It is shown that absorption can enlarge some gaps by as much as 50%.
2D materials provide a platform for strong light--matter interactions, creating wide-ranging design opportunities via new-material discoveries and new methods for geometrical structuring. We derive general upper bounds to the strength of…
Modern nanophotonic and meta-optical devices utilize a tremendous number of structural degrees of freedom to enhance light--matter interactions. A fundamental question is how large such enhancements can be. We develop an analytical…
Slow-light enhanced absorption in liquid-infiltrated photonic crystals has recently been proposed as a route to compensate for the reduced optical path in typical lab-on-a-chip systems for bio-chemical sensing applications. A simple…
We devise an optimised bi-component multi-layered dielectric stack design to enhance the local irradiance for efficient photovoltaic upconversion materials. The field intensity profile throughout the photonic structure is numerically…
Traditional concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems utilize multijunction cells to minimize thermalization losses, but cannot efficiently capture diffuse sunlight, which contributes to a high levelized cost of energy (LCOE) and limits…