Title :
Structural Optimization of Photonic Crystals for Enhancing Optical Absorption of Thin Film Silicon Solar Cell Structures
Author :
Kawamoto, Yasutaka ; Tanaka, Yuichi ; Ishizaki, K. ; De Zoysa, Menaka ; Asano, Takashi ; Noda, Satoshi
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electron. Sci. & Eng., Kyoto Univ., Kyoto, Japan
Abstract :
We carry out the structural design of photonic crystals to enhance the optical absorption of thin-film microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si) solar cells using two methods. First, by exhaustive search, we choose a structure with the largest absorption within the investigated patterns. Then we employ a sensitivity analysis to finely modulate the structure for further increase of the optical absorption. The obtained μc-Si solar cell structure with a photonic crystal in this work has more than twice as much optical absorption as that without a photonic crystal.
Keywords :
light absorption; micro-optics; photonic crystals; solar cells; optical absorption; photonic crystals; structural design; structural optimization; thin-film microcrystalline silicon solar cells; Absorption; Optical films; Optical reflection; Optical sensors; Optical superlattices; Photonic crystals; Silicon; Photonic crystal;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Journal, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/JPHOT.2014.2302800