Enhanced photon absorption of single nanowire α-Si solar cells modulated by silver core

Innovative Strategies for Photons Management on Ultrathin Silicon Solar Cells

Silicon (Si), the eighth most common element in the known universe by mass and widely applied in the industry of electronics chips and solar cells, rarely emerges as a pure element in the Earth's crust. Optimizing its manufacturing can be crucial in the global challenge of reducing the cost of renewable energy modules and implementing sustainable development goals in the future. In the industry of solar cells, this challenge is stimulating studies of ultrathin Si-based architectures, which are rapidly attracting broad attention. Ultrathin solar cells require up to two orders of magnitude less Si than conventional solar cells, and owning to a flexible nature, they are opening applications in different industries that conventional cells do not yet serve. Despite these attractive factors, a difficulty in ultrathin Si solar cells is overcoming the weak light absorption at near-infrared wavelengths. The primary goal in addressing this problem is scaling up cost-effective and innovative textures for anti-reflection and light-trapping with shallower depth junctions, which can offer similar performances to traditional thick modules. This review provides an overview of this area of research, discussing this field both as science and engineering and highlighting present progress and future outlooks.

Silicon-Au nanowire resonators for high-Q multiband near-infrared wave absorption

Semiconductors have been widely utilized to fabricate optoelectronic devices. Nevertheless, it is still a challenging task to achieve high-quality (Q) resonant light absorption using the high refractive index semiconductors. In this work, we propose a facile scheme for multi-band perfect absorption in the near-infrared range using an array of core-shell cylinder-shaped resonators which are composed of gold nanowires and thin silicon shells. Based on the cooperative effects between the photonic modes of the semiconductor cavity and the plasmonic resonances of the metal resonator, five sharp absorption peaks are observed with the maximal absorption close to 100% (99.98%) and a high Q factor up to 208. The multi-band sharp absorption is observed to be angle-insensitive and polarization-adjustable. Absorption efficiency can be quantitatively tuned via the polarization states following the classical Malus law. Moreover, different semiconductors such as gallium arsenide, indium arsenide, indium phosphide have been exploited to reproduce the sharp perfect absorption in this core-shell resonators platform. The remarkable features make the proposed system potential for multiple applications such as multispectral filtering, photo-detection and hot electron generation.

Current Approach in Surface Plasmons for Thin Film and Wire Array Solar Cell Applications

Surface plasmons, which exist along the interface of a metal and a dielectric, have been proposed as an efficient alternative method for light trapping in solar cells during the past ten years. With unique properties such as superior light scattering, optical trapping, guide mode coupling, near field concentration, and hot-electron generation, metallic nanoparticles or nanostructures can be tailored to a certain geometric design to enhance solar cell conversion efficiency and to reduce the material costs. In this article, we review current approaches on different kinds of solar cells, such as crystalline silicon (c-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) thin film solar cells, organic solar cells, nanowire array solar cells, and single nanowire solar cells.

Enhanced photoabsorption in front-tapered single-nanowire solar cells

Vertically aligned single-nanowire is verified to be a unique building block to realize the high-efficiency solar cell beyond Schockley-Queisser limit. We proposed a front-tapered vertically aligned single-nanowire solar cell (V-SNSC) and investigated numerically the possibility of this configuration to improve the photoabsorption efficiency compared to the conventional designs, by using 2.5D full-wave finite-element method. The influences of the feature sizes of aspect ratio, bottom radius, and nanowire length on the light-trapping properties were explored; the detailed field distribution and carrier generation rate were revealed as well based on the theory of dielectric resonant antenna, in order to elucidate the underlying physical mechanism. Results showed that, compared with the cylindrical counterparts, the absorption capability of V-SNSCs could be greatly enhanced by using a front-tapered configuration with less material utilized, and that such a positive effect can be further strengthened by increasing the nanowire length. The proposed configuration provides a promising approach to engineer the photoabsorption in the photovoltaic and other optoelectronic devices.

Aluminum plasmonics for enhanced visible light absorption and high efficiency water splitting in core-multishell nanowire photoelectrodes with ultrathin hematite shells

The poor internal quantum efficiency (IQE) arising from high recombination and insufficient absorption is one of the critical challenges toward achieving high efficiency water splitting in hematite (α-Fe2O3) photoelectrodes. By combining the nanowire (NW) geometry with the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in semiconductor-metal-metal oxide core-multishell (CMS) NWs, we theoretically demonstrate an effective route to strongly improve absorption within ultrathin (sub-50 nm) hematite layers. We show that Si-Al-Fe2O3 CMS NWs exhibit photocurrent densities comparable to Si-Ag-Fe2O3 CMS and outperform Fe2O3, Si-Fe2O3 CS and Si-Au-Fe2O3 CMS NWs. Specifically; Si-Al-Fe2O3 CMS NWs reach photocurrent densities of ∼ 11.81 mA/cm(2) within a 40 nm thick hematite shell which corresponding to a solar to hydrogen (STH) efficiency of 14.5%. This corresponds to about 93% of the theoretical maximum for bulk hematite. Therefore, we establish Al as an excellent alternative plasmonic material compared to precious metals in CMS structures. Further, the absorbed photon flux is close to the NW surface in the CMS NWs, which ensures the charges generated can reach the reaction site with minimal recombining. Although the NW geometry is anisotropic, the CMS NWs exhibit polarization independent absorption over a large range of incidence angles. Finally, we show that Si-Al-Fe2O3 CMS NWs demonstrate photocurrent densities greater than ∼ 8.2 mA/cm(2) (STH efficiency of 10%) for incidence angles as large as 45°. These theoretical results strongly establish the effectiveness of the Al-based CMS NWs for achieving scalable and cost-effective photoelectrodes with improved IQE, enabling a novel route toward high efficiency water splitting.

Performance-improved thin-film a-Si:H/μc-Si:H tandem solar cells by two-dimensionally nanopatterning photoactive layer

Tandem solar cells consisting of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon junctions with the top junction nanopatterned as a two-dimensional photonic crystal are studied. Broadband light trapping, detailed electron/hole transport, and photocurrent matching modulation are considered. It is found that the absorptances of both junctions can be significantly increased by properly engineering the duty cycles and pitches of the photonic crystal; however, the photocurrent enhancement is always unevenly distributed in the junctions, leading to a relatively high photocurrent mismatch. Further considering an optimized intermediate layer and device resistances, the optimally matched photocurrent approximately 12.74 mA/cm2 is achieved with a light-conversion efficiency predicted to be 12.67%, exhibiting an enhancement of over 27.72% compared to conventional planar configuration.

The influence of silver core position on enhanced photon absorption of single nanowire α-Si solar cells

Photon absorption of single nanowire solar cells can be modulated by metallic core. Silver core was integrated into α-Si single nanowire solar cells (SNSCs), and the influence of silver core position on enhanced photon absorption efficiency and the short circuit current (J(sc)) was investigated. The finite-difference time domain (FDTD) method was used to rigorously solve Maxwell's equations in two dimensions. The J(sc) decreases when the silver core is integrated into the center of nanowire. However, the photon absorption efficiencies and J(sc) could be enhanced by tuning the core position in the nanowire. J(sc) enhancement of 21.4% is achieved when nanowire radius R is 190 nm, core radius r is 30 nm, the silver core is located in the negative Y-axis and the distance from the center of silver core to the origin d is 102 nm under realistic solar illumination.

Extreme light absorption in thin semiconductor films wrapped around metal nanowires

Metallic and dielectric nanostructures have highly tunable resonances that have been used to increase light absorption in a variety of photovoltaic materials and device structures. Metal nanowires have also emerged as a promising candidate for high-performance transparent electrodes for local contacts. In this Letter we propose combining these electrical and optical functions. As a first step, we use rigorous solutions to Maxwell's equations to demonstrate theoretically extreme absorption in semiconductor thin films wrapped around metal nanowires. We show that there are two key principles underlying this extraordinary light trapping effect: (1) maximizing the absorption of each individual resonance by ensuring it is critically coupled and (2) increasing the total number of degenerate resonances. Inserting a metal core into a semiconductor nanowire creates such a degeneracy: polarization-dependent Mie resonances are transformed into polarization-independent Fabry-Pérot-like resonances. We demonstrate that, by reducing the polarization sensitivity and increasing the number of critically coupled modes, this hybrid coaxial nanowire geometry substantially outperforms solid semiconducting nanowires, even though the semiconductor volume is significantly reduced. These results suggest that metal nanowires with semiconductor shells might be ideal building blocks for photovoltaic and solar fuel applications.