OPTICAL ABSORPTION ENHANCEMENT IN SOLAR CELLS VIA 3D PHOTONIC CRYSTAL STRUCTURES

Light concentrating structures with three-dimensional photonic crystals (3D PhCs) for solar cell applications are investigated via simulation. The 3D opal PhCs are suggested as an intermediate layer in the concentrator system for solar cells. It is found that the light absorption is signiflcantly enhanced due to the adding of difiractive efiects of PhCs to the concentrator. Three types of PhCs are considered in four scenarios to verify the absorption enhancement by such a light concentrating structure. Our calculations show that the face-centered cubic PhC can create an absorbing e-ciency superior to the others under a specifled lattice orientation pointing to the sun, which results in an enhancement factor of 1.56 in absorption for the 500{1100nm spectral range.

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