Related papers: Beyond Lambertian light trapping for large-area si…
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…
We report on the fabrication of two-dimensional periodic photonic nanostructures by nanoimprint lithography and dry etching, and their integration into a 1-{\mu}m-thin mono-crystalline silicon solar cell. Thanks to the periodic…
Random surface texturing of an optically-thick film to increase the path length of scattered light rays, first proposed nearly thirty years ago, has thus far remained the most effective approach for photon absorption over the widest set of…
Large surface area applications such as high-efficiency > 26% solar cells require surface patterning with 1-10 micrometers periodic patterns at high fidelity over 1-10 cm^2 areas (before up scaling to 1 m^2) to perform at, or exceed, the…
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 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…
We describe surface patterning strategies that permit high photon-collection efficiency together with high carrier-collection efficiency in an ultra-thin planar heterojunction organic photovoltaic cell. Optimized designs reach up to 50%…
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…
Silicon photodetectors operating at near-infrared wavelengths with high-speed and high sensitivity are becoming critical for emerging applications, such as Light Detection and Ranging Systems (LIDAR), quantum communications, and medical…
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…
Multi-junction solar cells provide a path to overcome the efficiency limits of standard silicon solar cells by harvesting more efficiently a broader range of the solar spectrum. However, Si-based multi-junction architectures are hindered by…
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…
We propose a frequency selective light trapping scheme that enables the creation of more visually-transparent and yet simultaneously more efficient semitransparent solar cells. A nanoparticle scattering layer and photonic stack back…
Patterning the front side of an ultra-thin crystalline silicon (c Si) solar cell helps keeping the energy conversion efficiency high by compensating for the light absorption losses. A super-Gaussian mathematical expression was used in order…
It is currently possible to fabricate crystalline silicon solar cells with the absorber thickness ranging from a few hundreds of micrometers (conventional wafer-based cells) to devices as thin as $1\,\mu\mathrm{m}$. In this work, we use a…
We present a route to near-perfect absorption in compact photonic-crystal (PC) structures constructed from strongly absorbing media that are typically highly reflective in bulk form. Our analysis suggests that the key underlying mechanism…
We experimentally demonstrate that the addition of partial lattice disorder to a thin-film micro-crystalline silicon photonic crystal results in the controlled spectral broadening of its absorption peaks to form quasi resonances; increasing…
The integration of two-dimensional (2D) periodic nanopattern defined by nanoimprint lithography and dry etching into aluminum induced crystallization (AIC) based polycrystalline silicon (Poly-Si) thin film solar cells is investigated…
Theoretically and experimentally we have proved the existence of optimal thickness of the porous layer used as an anti-reflection coating in solar cells. We have taken into account the joint mechanisms of generation and recombination of…
We optimized micro-holes in a thin slab for fast Si photodetectors at wavelength 800-950nm. Lateral modes are shown to be responsible for the effective light trapping. Small disorder and cone hole shapes helped achieve uniform quantum…