Multi-resonant absorption in ultra-thin silicon solar cells with metallic nanowires

I. Massiot (1) , Clément Colin (1, 2) , Christophe Sauvan (3) , Philippe Lalanne (3) , Pere Roca I Cabarrocas (4) , Jean-Luc Pelouard (1) , Stéphane Collin (1)

1 LPN - Laboratoire de photonique et de nanostructures
2 IRDEP - Institut de Recherche et Développement sur l'Energie Photovoltaïque
3 lp2n-03,lp2n-13
4 LPICM - Laboratoire de physique des interfaces et des couches minces [Palaiseau]

We propose a design to confine light absorption in flat and ultra-thin amorphous silicon solar cells with a one-dimensional silver grating embedded in the front window of the cell.We show numerically that multi-resonant light trapping is achieved in both TE and TM polarizations. Each resonance is analyzed in detail and modeled by Fabry-Perot resonances or guided modes via grating coupling. This approach is generalized to a complete amorphous silicon solar cell, with the additional degrees of freedom provided by the buffer layers. These results could guide the design of resonant structures for optimized ultra-thin solar cells.

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Optics / Photonic; Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

I. Massiot, Clément Colin, Christophe Sauvan, Philippe Lalanne, Pere Roca I Cabarrocas, et al.. Multi-resonant absorption in ultra-thin silicon solar cells with metallic nanowires. Optics Express, 2013, 21 (S3), pp.A372-A381. ⟨10.1364/OE.21.00A372⟩. ⟨hal-00811652⟩