Light trapping in ultrathin film plasmonic solar cells
Event details
| Date | 11.10.2010 |
| Hour | 11:00 |
| Speaker | Mrs Vivian Ferry |
| Location |
MTGA, rue A.-L. Breguet 2, 2000 Neuchâtel
|
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Although roughened back reflectors for a-Si:H solar cells have been an integral part of commercial solar cell production for decades, back contacts incorporating plasmonic nanostructures are attractive candidates for enhancing optical absorption in thin films due to their ability to confine light in nanoscale dimensions. Relative to roughened surface texturing, nanostructured back contacts can enhance absorption via controlled coupling of incident free space optical modes into localized resonant modes and propagating guided wave modes. We have fabricated ultrathin film n-i-p a-Si:H solar cells with square arrays of hemispherical nanoparticles built directly into the metallic back contact. The resonant scattering of the nanoparticles couples light into photonic waveguide modes, which is confirmed via angle-resolved photocurrent measurements. The arrays were designed using results from electromagnetic simulation and guided mode calculations, and the experiments agree well with both simulation and theory.
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