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2012 14th International Conference on Transparent Optical Networks (ICTON)

DOI: 10.1109/icton.2012.6254404

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Light trapping in thin film solar cells with sub-wavelength photonic crystal patterns

Proceedings article published in 2012 by Angelo Bozzola, Marco Liscidini, Lucio Claudio Andreani
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Abstract

In this paper we investigate light-trapping in thin film crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells with shallow photonic crystal (PhC) front patterns. Coupling of light to the quasi-guided optical modes of the structures becomes a dominant feature when the thickness approaches the wavelength scale. Simple 1D and 2D patterns are investigated using a scattering matrix approach, and best results are compared with the Lambertian limit to light trapping. We show that light trapping can be enhanced by adding a controlled amount of disorder inside the PhC unit cell. We present some preliminary results about a Gaussian size-disorder in 1D structures, and we conclude that an advanced light-trapping design should rely on both order and disorder to maximize the absorption of sunlight.