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Optimal design of aperiodic, vertical silicon nanowire structures for photovoltaics

Chenxi Lin and Michelle L. Povinelli

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We design a partially aperiodic, vertically-aligned silicon nanowire array that maximizes photovoltaic absorption. The optimal structure is obtained using a random walk algorithm with transfer matrix method based electromagnetic forward solver. The optimal, aperiodic structure exhibits a 2.35 times enhancement in ultimate efficiency compared to its periodic counterpart. The spectral behavior mimics that of a periodic array with larger lattice constant. For our system, we find that randomly-selected, aperiodic structures invariably outperform the periodic array.

©2011 Optical Society of America

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Figures (5)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 Schematics of periodic (a) and aperiodic (b) silicon nanowire structures.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Top view of initial periodic (a) and optimal aperiodic (b) silicon nanowire arrays. Dashed lines indicate boundaries between super cells.

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 (a) Solar absorptance spectra for periodic (blue dotted) and optimal aperiodic (red solid) silicon nanowire structures. The absorptance spectrum for an equally-thick silicon thin film (gray dashed) is also plotted for reference. (b) Reflectance (black dotted), transmittance (red dashed), and absorptance (blue solid) of the optimal aperiodic array near 1.249eV (992.3nm).

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Absorption profile of (a) periodic and (b) optimal aperiodic silicon nanowire structures at a horizontal cross section 0.233μm below the top surface of the nanowire array. White dashed lines indicate boundaries between super cells.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Histogram of ultimate efficiencies in 1000 randomly-selected, aperiodic silicon nanowire structures. The ultimate efficiency of the initial periodic array (blue, dashed line) is plotted for reference.

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Equations (1)

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η = ∫ 310 n m λ g I ( λ ) A ( λ ) λ λ g d λ ∫ 310 n m 4000 n m I ( λ ) d λ ,
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