Enhanced absorption of Ag diamond-type nanoantenna arrays

The optical metal nanoantenna on thin film solar cell is effective to enhance light absorption. In this paper, the diamond-type Ag nanoantenna arrays are proposed for increasing the efficiency of solar cells by localized surface plasmons resonance(LSPR). The effect of metal nanoantenna on the absorption enhancement is theoretically investigated by the finite difference time domain(FDTD) method. Broadband absorption enhancements in both visible and near-infrared regions are demonstrated in case of solar cell with diamond-type Ag nanoantennas. The spectral response is manipulated by geometrical parameters of the nanoantennas. The maximum enhancement factor of 1.51 for solar cell is obtained. For comparison, the other three nanoantennas are also analyzed. The results show that the solar cell with optimized diamond-type nanoantenna arrays is more efficient in optical absorption.     

双光栅结构薄膜太阳能电池的优化

为了提高单晶硅薄膜太阳能电池短路电流密度和转换效率, 采用在单晶硅薄膜太阳能电池正背面分别集成硅介质光栅和铝金属光栅的方法, 并利用有限时域差分法软件仿真研究了两种光栅的周期、厚度、占空比对单晶硅薄膜太阳能电池短路电流密度和光转换效率的影响。结果表明, 通过优化可得当正背面光栅都处于最优值时(介质光栅占空比F=0.8、介质光栅周期P=0.632μm、介质光栅厚度h_g=0.42μm; 金属光栅占空比F₁=0.9、金属光栅周期P=0.632μm、金属光栅厚度h_m=0.005μm), 短路电流密度可达35.15mA/cm2, 转换效率为43.35%;将最优光栅单晶硅薄膜太阳能电池与传统单晶硅薄膜太阳能电池对比, 无论是光程路径还是吸收效率, 光栅单晶硅薄膜太阳能电池都有显著的提高。这为以后制备高性能薄膜太阳能电池提供了理论指导。     

Dual-band absorption enhancement of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides in metamaterials

Enhancement of light absorption in two-dimensional (2D) single atomic layer materials is a significant issue for applications of 2D material-based optoelectronic devices. In this letter, the dual-band enhanced absorptions in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are obtained based on the metmaterial nanostructures. The proposed nanostructure consists of a monolayer TMDs sandwiched between Ag nanodisks and a dielectric spacer on Ag substrate. The excitations of the surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and the magnetic dipole resonances contribute to the high absorption efficiency, and the resulting absorption enhancement can be separately tuned by simply adjusting the structural parameters such as the spacer thickness, the size and the period of the Ag nanodisks. In addition, a hybrid nanostructure consisting of different nanodisks can increase the absorption bandwidth. The calculated results may have some potential applications in photodetection and wavelength-selective photoluminescence.     

二维金纳米阵列制备及其光学响应

有序贵金属纳米结构由于其本身所特有的光学响应及灵活调控能力,在微纳光电子材料与器件研究领域得到了广泛应用。在众多相关研究中,如何实现金（Au）纳米周期结构的大面积快速制备是人们关心的重要问题之一。采用纳米球自组装刻蚀方法,在大孔周期结构模板内部成功制备了新型二维Au纳米阵列,并有效避免了杂散Au纳米颗粒的产生。通过进一步的工艺优化和参量控制,实现了Au纳米颗粒尺寸的灵活调控,并探讨了其结构形成的物理机理。光学测试研究结果揭示了二维Au纳米阵列的表面等离子体吸收与散射响应,并证明其在近红外飞秒脉冲激励下具有显著的双光子吸收（饱和）效应。该研究结果在太阳能电池,光开关及材料微纳制备等领域具有潜在应用。     

3D‐printed external light trap for solar cells

We present a universally applicable 3D‐printed external light trap for enhanced absorption in solar cells. The macroscopic external light trap is placed at the sun‐facing surface of the solar cell and retro‐reflects the light that would otherwise escape. The light trap consists of a reflective parabolic concentrator placed on top of a reflective cage. Upon placement of the light trap, an improvement of 15% of both the photocurrent and the power conversion efficiency in a thin‐film nanocrystalline silicon (nc‐Si:H) solar cell is measured. The trapped light traverses the solar cell several times within the reflective cage thereby increasing the total absorption in the cell. Consequently, the trap reduces optical losses and enhances the absorption over the entire spectrum. The components of the light trap are 3D printed and made of smoothened, silver‐coated thermoplastic. In contrast to conventional light trapping methods, external light trapping leaves the material quality and the electrical properties of the solar cell unaffected. To explain the theoretical operation of the external light trap, we introduce a model that predicts the absorption enhancement in the solar cell by the external light trap. The corresponding calculated path length enhancement shows good agreement with the empirically derived value from the opto‐electrical data of the solar cell. Moreover, we analyze the influence of the angle of incidence on the parasitic absorptance to obtain full understanding of the trap performance. © 2015 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Photonic crystal microcrystalline silicon solar cells

Enhancing the absorption of thin‐film microcrystalline silicon solar cells over a broadband range in order to improve the energy conversion efficiency is a very important challenge in the development of low cost and stable solar energy harvesting. Here, we demonstrate that a broadband enhancement of the absorption can be achieved by creating a large number of resonant modes associated with two‐dimensional photonic crystal band edges. We utilize higher‐order optical modes perpendicular to the silicon layer, as well as the band‐folding effect by employing photonic crystal superlattice structures. We establish a method to incorporate photonic crystal structures into thin‐film (~500 nm) microcrystalline silicon photovoltaic layers while suppressing undesired defects formed in the microcrystalline silicon. The fabricated solar cells exhibit 1.3 times increase of a short circuit current density (from 15.0 mA/cm² to 19.6 mA/cm²) by introducing the photonic crystal structure, and consequently the conversion efficiency increases from 5.6% to 6.8%. Moreover, we theoretically analyze the absorption characteristics in the fabricated cell structure, and reveal that the energy conversion efficiency can be increased beyond 9.5% in a structure less than 1/400 as thick as conventional crystalline silicon solar cells with an efficiency of 24%. © 2015 The Authors. Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.     

The strong absorption characteristics of ternary one-dimensional photonic crystals with silver layer

In order to achieve broadband and efficient optical absorption, the multiple silver nanolayer was introduced into the photonic crystals to form a one-dimensional ternary periodic symmetric structure. The effects of thickness of each layer on the band range, absorption bandwidth, absorbance and absorption energy field distribution of the solar spectrum high absorption band were studied by the transfer matrix method. The absorption band with wavelength range from 724 nm to 1 188 nm, spectral width of 464 nm, and average absorbance of 0.78 was obtained by structural adjustment. The absorbed energy is mainly distributed in the first half of the symmetrical structure of the photonic crystal. When the thickness of the silver layer decreased from 30 nm to 15 nm, the local energy in each period increased significantly. At the same time, the distribution and transfer of energy in silicon and MgF2 layers can be controlled. The results of this paper can be used to improve the absorption of solar radiation, and provide an important basis for the design of photonic crystal and their application in solar energy utilization.     

Plasmonic Enhancement or Energy Transfer? On the Luminescence of Gold‐, Silver‐, and Lanthanide‐Doped Silicate Glasses and Its Potential for Light‐Emitting Devices

With the technique of synchrotron X‐ray activation, molecule‐like, non‐plasmonic gold and silver particles in soda‐lime silicate glasses can be generated. The luminescence energy transfer between these species and lanthanide(III) ions is studied. As a result, a significant lanthanide luminescence enhancement by a factor of up to 250 under non‐resonant UV excitation is observed. The absence of a distinct gold and silver plasmon resonance absorption, respectively, the missing nanoparticle signals in previous SAXS and TEM experiments, the unaltered luminescence lifetime of the lanthanide ions compared to the non‐enhanced case, and an excitation maximum at 300–350 nm (equivalent to the absorption range of small noble metal particles) indicate unambiguously that the observed enhancement is due to a classical energy transfer between small noble metal particles and lanthanide ions, and not to a plasmonic field enhancement effect. It is proposed that very small, molecule‐like noble metal particles (such as dimers, trimers, and tetramers) first absorb the excitation light, undergo a singlet‐triplet intersystem crossing, and finally transfer the energy to an excited multiplet state of adjacent lanthanide(III) ions. X‐ray lithographic microstructuring and excitation with a commercial UV LED show the potential of the activated glass samples as bright light‐emitting devices with tunable emission colors.     

等离激元共振增强多晶硅薄膜太阳电池性能研究

采用磁控溅射方法,在多晶硅薄膜太阳电池表面沉积了不同粒径大小的Au纳米粒子,利用粒径大小可调控的Au纳米粒子的局域表面等离激元共振增强效应(LSPR),对入射光中的可见光区域实现“光俘获”;采用UV-vis吸收光谱对LSPR进行了研究,结果表明,LSPR能够有效拓展Au纳米粒子的光谱响应范围(400～800 nm),并且,随着Au纳米粒子粒径的增大,LSPR共振吸收峰呈现出明显“红移”;同时,通过SERS表征,证实LSPR能够有效增强Au纳米粒子周围的局域电磁场强度;最后,多晶硅太阳电池的J-V特性曲线表明,当Au纳米粒子溅射时间为50 s时,多晶硅太阳电池光电转换效率(η)最高为14.8％,比未修饰Au纳米粒子的电池η提高了42.3％.     

Broadband light trapping with disordered photonic structures in thin‐film silicon solar cells

We theoretically investigate light trapping with disordered 1D photonic structures in thin‐film crystalline silicon solar cells. The disorder is modelled in a finite‐size supercell, which allows the use of rigorous coupled‐wave analysis to calculate the optical properties of the devices and the short‐circuit current density J_sc. The role of the Fourier transform of the photonic pattern in the light trapping is investigated, and the optimal correlation between size and position disorder is found. This result is used to optimize the disorder in a more effective way, using a single parameter. We find that a Gaussian disorder always enhances the device performance with respect to the best ordered configuration. To properly quantify this improvement, we calculate the Lambertian limit to the absorption enhancement for 1D photonic structures in crystalline silicon, following the previous work for the 2D case [M.A. Green, Progr. Photovolt: Res. Appl. 2002; 10 (4), pp. 235–241]. We find that disorder optimization can give a relevant contribution to approach this limit. Finally, we propose an optimal disordered 2D configuration and estimate the maximum short‐circuit current that can be achieved, potentially leading to efficiencies that are comparable with the values of other thin‐film solar cell technologies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Antireflective Nanoparticle Arrays Enhance the Efficiency of Silicon Solar Cells

In this study, the phenomenon of light trapping in Si solar cells coated with metal (Au) and dielectric (TiO₂, SiO₂) nanoparticles (NPs) is systematically investigated. In contrast to previous reports, herein it is proposed that the photocurrent enhancement of solar cells should be attributed to the limited antireflection ability of the Au NP arrays. In other words, the Au NP arrays might not enhance the absorption of the active layer in cells when no light is reflected from the air–substrate interface. Therefore, the Au NPs are replaced with dielectric NPs, which possess lower extinction coefficients, and then the antireflection property of the TiO₂ NP arrays is optimized. A simple, rapid, and cheap solution‐based method is used to prepare close‐packed TiO₂ NP films on Si solar cells; these devices exhibit a uniform and remarkable increase (ca. 30%) in their photocurrents. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this uniform photocurrent enhancement is greater than those obtained from previously reported metal and dielectric NP–enhanced Si wafer‐based solar cells.     

Light‐trapping and back surface structures for polycrystalline silicon solar cells

Light‐trapping in polycrystalline silicon solar cells is usually considered to be more difficult to implement than that in single crystal silicon solar cells due to the random crystallographic orientations in various grains. Furthermore, if minority carrier diffusion length is on the order of or less than solar cell thickness, which is the case of most cost‐effective polycrystalline silicon, the translation of optical gain, achieved from light‐trapping, into electrical gain will be rather limited, even with a perfect back surface passivation. In this work, geometrical light‐trapping structures are demonstrated using a simplified isotropic etching at polycrystalline silicon surfaces. Combined with a back surface reflector (BSR), an enhanced absorption in the long wavelength region is measured with a low parasitic absorption. Different light‐trapping structures are experimentally compared. To further examine the electrical gain from light‐trapping, a three‐terminal solar cell structure is used. This structure allows three different back surface configurations to be realized in a single device: unpassivated, passivated with a floating junction, and enhanced with a collecting junction. Results indicate that even with a relatively short minority‐carrier diffusion length the current collection in the long wavelength region can be significantly improved and the light‐trapping effect is enhanced as well. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Ag纳米粒子等离子体共振增强太阳能电池吸收

针对薄膜太阳能电池硅薄膜层吸收效率较低的问题,提出了运用金属纳米粒子局域表面等离子体共振(LSPR)增强太阳能电池的吸收效率,采用时域有限差分(FDTD)法,模拟计算了太阳能电池中不同厚度的硅薄膜层吸收特性,分析了不同几何参数的矩形Ag纳米粒子与Ag背反射膜对增强太阳能电池吸收效率的影响作用。计算结果表明,硅薄膜层厚度为500nm的太阳能电池具有较高的吸收效率,通过调整Ag纳米粒子的相关参数,有效地降低了太阳电池硅薄膜表面的反射损耗,取得最大吸收增强因子为1.35。Ag背反射膜有效地降低了Ag纳米粒子硅薄膜结构的透射损耗,其最大的吸收增强因子达到1.42。     

晶体硅太阳电池烧结工艺优化

金属电极与硅的接触电阻是影响太阳电池填充因子和短路电流进而影响光电转换效率的重要因素之一。首先对晶体硅太阳电池的烧结工艺进行了优化,利用平台式烧结温度曲线代替陡坡式烧结温度曲线。然后,采用Core Scan方法测试工艺优化前后晶体硅太阳电池丝网印刷烧结银电极与硅之间的接触电阻Rc,并测试了工艺优化前后电池片的IV特性。数据显示烧结工艺优化后可减小银电极与硅的接触电阻,从而提高了太阳电池的光电转化效率。平台式烧结温度曲线更适用浅结高方阻的电池结构。     

Light Management with Patterned Micro‐ and Nanostructure Arrays for Photocatalysis,Photovoltaics, and Optoelectronic and Optical Devices

The design and fabrication of patterned micro‐ and nanostructure arrays have been demonstrated to be a powerful strategy toward efficient light management, which is of vital importance to a variety of photon‐related applications such as photocatalysis, photovoltaics, optoelectronic devices, and optical devices. Tunable optical reflectance, scattering, transmittance, and absorption can be readily achieved by adjusting the characteristics of the primary units in the micro‐/nanoarrays and the spatial patterns of the aligned units, thus realizing controllable light–matter interactions. This review describes various light management strategies based on patterned micro‐/nanoarrays, such as scattering enhancement, antireflection, resonances, photonic crystals, and plasmonic structures. Furthermore, recent advances in the applications of patterned micro‐/nanoarrays in photoelectrochemical water splitting, solar cells, photodetectors, light emitting diodes, lasers, color display, microlens arrays, and photonic crystal sensors are summarized, with particular attention paid to the light management mechanisms and the relationship between the structure and device performance. Lastly, the prospects and existing challenges facing the development of the photon‐related applications based on patterned micro‐/nanoarrays are discussed.     

Theory and experiments on the back side reflectance of silicon wafer solar cells

New passivation layers for the back side of silicon solar cells have to show high performance in terms of electrical passivation as well as high internal reflectivity. This optical performance is often shown as values for the back side reflectance R_b which describes the rear internal reflection. In this paper, we investigate in detail the meaning of this single‐value parameter, its correct determination and the use in one‐dimensional simulations with PC1D. The free‐carrier‐absorption (FCA) as non‐carrier‐generating absorption channel is analyzed for solar cells with varying thickness. We apply the optical analysis to samples with different thickness, silicon oxide layer thickness, rear side topography as well as passivation layers (SiO₂, SiN_x, SiC and stack systems). Additionally, the optical influence of the laser‐fired contacts (LFC) process is experimentally investigated. Finally, we show that with correct parameters, the one‐dimensional simulation of very thin silicon solar cells can successfully be performed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Evolution of metal plating for silicon solar cell metallisation

Increasing silver prices and reducing silicon wafer thicknesses provide incentives for silicon solar cell manufacturing to develop new metallisation strategies that do not rely on screen printing and preferably reduce silver usage. Recently, metal plating has re‐emerged as a metallisation process that may address these future requirements. This paper reports on the evolution of metal plating techniques, from their use in early silicon solar cells, to current light‐induced plating processes. Unlike screen‐printed metallisation, metal plating typically requires an initial patterning step to create openings in a masking layer for the subsequent self‐aligned metallisation. Consequently, relevant recently‐developed dielectric patterning methods are also reviewed because, in many cases, the plating process must be adapted to the properties of the patterning method used. The potential of new light‐induced plating processes to form cost‐effective copper metallisation is supported by the recent activity in the development of metal plating tools for commercial silicon solar cell manufacture. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

表面等离子体激元增强薄膜太阳电池研究进展

表面等离子体激元共振是金属纳米结构非常独特的光学特性,对基于表面等离子体激元共振的纳米结构体系的研究已形成了一门新兴的学科,即表面等离子体光子学。可以利用金属纳米颗粒光散射、近场增强以及高度局域的表面等离子体极化激元增强薄膜太阳电池光吸收,提高电池转换效率。当前,表面等离子体光子学应用于太阳电池的设计已成为国际上光伏研究迅猛发展的一个热点。文章主要介绍表面等离子体激元增强薄膜太阳电池光吸收的原理及其在光伏器件中应用的最新研究进展。     

超快激光微构造硅的研究与应用

在特定的气体氛围下,用一定能量密度的超短脉冲激光连续照射单晶硅片表面,或者离子注入在硅中引入硫族元素等方法,可在硅表面得到具有奇特光电性质的微米量级尖锥结构,该微锥结构被称为黑硅。这一新材料有奇特的光电性质,如对0.25～17μm波长的光有强烈的吸收,具有良好的场致发射特性等,为硅提供许多新的功能。Mazur教授预言这种新材料相当于60年前的半导体,在探测器、传感器、显示技术及微电子等领域都有重要的潜在应用价值,尤其在高效太阳能电池领域具有其他材料无可比拟的优越性。本文介绍了超快激光微构造硅的形成机理,研究进展、光电特性以及应用前景。     

Absorption enhancement of silicon solar cell with Ag nanoparticles by surface plasmons resonance

The absorption enhancements of silicon layer in silicon solar cells with three kinds of Ag nanoparticles including sphere, cylinder and cuboid are studied by the finite difference time domain （FDTD） method, respectively. The results show that the light absorption of silicon is significantly improved due to the localized surface plasmon （LSP） reso- nance. The relations of the absorption enhancement with the parameters of nanoparticles are thoroughly analyzed. The optimal absorption enhancement can be achieved by adjusting the relevant parameters. Among the three types of Ag nanoparticles, i.e., sphere, cylinder and cuboid, the silicon with the cubical Ag nanopaticles shows the most efficient absorption enhancement at optimal conditions, its maximum absorption enhancement factor is 1.35, and that with the spherical Ag nanopaticles gets the lowest absorption enhancement. The work is useful for the further theoretical study and design for the plasmonic thin-film solar cell.