Hybrid approach simulations for light propagation problems

In the past decade numerical methods started to play a major role in the field of solar cells design and optimization. We review most prominent numerical techniques for solving Maxwell´s equations and for calculation of a solar cells absorption efficiency. Since all methods have their advantages and drawbacks, we combine them into a hybrid technique to benefit as much as possible from the strong sides of each method. The resulting hybrid approach is shown to be highly valuable for simulations of complex photonic structures. It allows us to benefit from advantages of different techniques while avoiding most of their disadvantages. The proposed method is based on the scattering matrix technique that can be applied to a large variety of numerical methods and can also benefit greatly from geometric symmetries of structures to be analyzed.