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Capping layers are essential for protecting phase change materials (PCMs) used in non-volatile photonics technologies. This work demonstrates how $(ZnS)_{0.8}-(SiO_2)_{0.2}$ caps radically influence the performance of $Sb_{2}S_{3}$ and…
Scientific research can bring about important progress in developing renewable energy technology such as solar cells. However, in addition to positive impact, research also comes at a cost, and one such cost is the CO$_2$ footprint…
Spectral converters are known to increase photovoltaic energy conversion by minimizing losses due to fundamental non-absorption and thermalization processes, and have been suggested to surpass the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit in…
III-V materials show a wide range of gaps making them ideal for the design of high efficiency solar cells. This chapter reviews relevant growth methods and material properties of these materials and discusses methods of combining…
An important parameter that affects PV panel performance of a solar power system is the incident solar radiation with the panel or panel's area of exposure to the sun. The direction and tilt angle of a PV panel are two important factors in…
The photovoltaic properties of carbon nanotube/Si heterojunction solar cells were investigated using network films of high quality single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) grown by atmospheric-pressure floating-catalyst chemical vapor…
Recently, liquid-phase crystallization of thin silicon films has emerged as a promising candidate for thin-film photovoltaics. On 10 \mu m thin absorbers, wafer-equivalent morphologies and open-circuit voltages were reached, leading to a…
Theoretical and experimental evidence of light driven structuring of glasses is presented. We show that light overcomes Coulomb repulsion and effective electron-electron interaction in glasses under strong light pumping becomes attractive.…
Encapsulation layers are explored for passivating the surfaces of silicon to reduce optical absorption in the 1500-nm wavelength band. Surface-sensitive test structures consisting of microdisk resonators are fabricated for this purpose.…
A 2-D photonic crystal was integrated experimentally into a thin-film crystalline-silicon solar cell of 1-{\mu}m thickness, after numerical optimization maximizing light absorption in the active material. The photonic crystal boosted the…
Physical mechanisms unique to plasmonic materials, which can be exploited for the existing and emerging applications of plasmonics for renewable energy technologies, are reviewed. The hybrid nature of surface plasmon (SP) modes -…
With the usage of two transparent electrodes, organic solar cells are semitransparent and may be combined to parallel-connected multi-junction devices or used for innovative applications like power-generating windows. A challenging issue is…
For commercial one-sun solar modules, up to 80% of the incoming sunlight may be dissipated as heat, potentially raising the temperature 20 C - 30 C higher than the ambient. In the long term, extreme self-heating erodes efficiency and…
Due to an ever growing shortage of conventional energy sources, there is an increasingly intense interest in harnessing solar energy. The instant invention can contribute to the goal of achieving environmentally clean solar energy to be…
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…
Phase change material (PCM) features distinct optical or electronic properties between amorphous and crystalline states. Recently, it starts to play a key role in the emerging photonic applications like optoelectronic display, dynamic…
Electron irradiation enables quantitative control over the plastic flow dynamics of silicate glasses, even far below the glass transition temperature. Through stress-relaxation experiments spanning ambient to near-glass-transition…
We numerically simulate, using finite-difference time-domain, the optical properties of silver nano discs deposited on the front surface of silicon solar cells. We explore the effect of each of the parameters of such a system, in order to…
Thin-film photovoltaic (PV) technologies address crucial challenges in solar energy applications, including scalability, cost-effectiveness, and environmental sustainability. This paper reviews critically, thin-film technologies such as…
This work introduces solar, a collection of ten optimization problem instances for benchmarking blackbox optimization solvers. The instances present different design aspects of a concentrated solar power plant simulated by blackbox…