Funneling and guiding effects in ultrathin aSi-H solar cells using one-dimensional dielectric subwavelength gratings

Mahmoud H. Elshorbagy; Javier Alda

doi:10.1117/1.JPE.7.017002

9 March 2017 Funneling and guiding effects in ultrathin aSi-H solar cells using one-dimensional dielectric subwavelength gratings

Mahmoud H. Elshorbagy, Javier Alda

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Photonics for Energy, Vol. 7, Issue 1, 017002 (March 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.7.017002

Abstract

Ultrathin amorphous silicon hydrogenated (aSi-H) solar cells grown on a one-dimensional (1-D) dielectric subwavelength gratings improve the short circuit current by a factor of more than 51% when compared with conventional, flat ultrathin aSi-H devices. This improvement is possible due to several mechanisms. In addition the increase in exposed area caused by the nanostructured surface, a reliable computational electromagnetic evaluation of the interaction of the solar spectrum with the cell structure demonstrates that absorption at the active layer is enhanced and also reflectivity is decreased. In addition, the absorbed power at the nonactive layers is larger, helping to increase the temperature and mitigate the Staebler–Wronski effect. The detailed analysis of the power flux inside the structure has also shown that funneling and guiding mechanism are at play, increasing the optical path within the active layer that produces a better performance of the cell.

Citation Download Citation

Mahmoud H. Elshorbagy and Javier Alda "Funneling and guiding effects in ultrathin aSi-H solar cells using one-dimensional dielectric subwavelength gratings," Journal of Photonics for Energy 7(1), 017002 (9 March 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JPE.7.017002

Received: 24 November 2016; Accepted: 10 February 2017; Published: 9 March 2017

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