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Investigation of optical absorptance of one-dimensionally periodic silicon gratings as solar absorbers for solar cells

Nghia Nguyen-Huu, Michael Cada, and Jaromír Pištora

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

A rigorous design using periodic silicon (Si) gratings as absorbers for solar cells in visible and near-infrared regions is numerically presented. The structure consists of a subwavelength Si grating layer on top of an Si substrate. Ranges of grating dimensions are preliminary considered satisfying simple and feasible fabrication techniques with an aspect ratio defined as the ratio of the grating thickness (d) and the grating lamella width (w), with 0 < d/w < 1.0. The subwavelength grating structure (SGS) is assumed to comprise different lamella widths and slits within each period in order to finely tune the grating profile such that the absorptance is significantly enhanced in the whole wavelength region. The results showed that the compound SGS yields an average absorptance of 0.92 which is 1.5 larger than that of the Si plain and conventional grating structures. It is shown that the absorptance spectrum of the proposed SGS is insensitive to the angle of incidence of the incoming light. The absorptance enhancement is also investigated by computing magnetic field, energy density, and Poynting vector distributions. The results presented in this study show that the proposed method based on nanofabrication techniques provides a simple and promising solution to design solar energy absorbers or other energy harvesting devices.

© 2013 Optical Society of America

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Figures (7)
Fig. 1
Fig. 1 (a) Schematic illustration of the grating structure whose geometry is defined by the grating period Λ, the grating thickness d and the lamella width w. The transverse magnetic wave (H) (parallel to the grating grooves or y-axis) is incident on the grating with a wavevector k and an angle θ. (b) Optical constants of the Si material used in this study [34]; the inset figure shows the index ratio (κ/n) between the extinction index κ and the refractive index n.

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Fig. 2
Fig. 2 Contour plots of absorptance (A) for wavelengths of 300 ~1100 nm at TM normal incidence with variations of the grating thickness, 20 < d < 200 nm, and the lamella width, 0 < w < 300 nm. The designed parameters for tuning geometric structures to enhance absorptance are marked by two dash lines.

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Fig. 3
Fig. 3 Schematic of simple and compound grating structures with the grating period Λ, the lamella widths (w1 = 60 nm and w2 = 120 nm), and the same grating thickness (d = 80 nm). The proposed structures are classified by groups I and II (TM wave incidence in all cases).

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Fig. 4
Fig. 4 Absorptance spectra of simple and compound grating structures (group I and II) for the TM wave at normal incidence. The left-hand side inset represents the absorptance spectra plotted for TE wave, while the right-hand side inset shows validation between the RCWA and FEM methods used to calculate spectral absorptance peak D2 (located a λ = 420 nm) with different angles of incidence.

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Fig. 5
Fig. 5 Absorptance for wavelengths of 300 ~1100 nm at the TM wave versus angles of incidence for CGI and CGII structures.

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Fig. 6
Fig. 6 Near-field patterns of grating structures of group I including SGI and CGI at points A1 (at λ = 470 nm), A2 (at λ = 460 nm), B1 (at λ = 370 nm), and B2 (at λ = 390 nm) as plotted in the top right-hand side of Fig. 4. The top figures represent electromagnetic field distributions while the bottom figures show energy density and Poynting vector patterns within one grating period.

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Fig. 7
Fig. 7 Near-field patterns of grating structures of group II including SGII and CGII at points C1 (at λ = 515 nm), C2 (at λ = 515 nm), D1 (at λ = 410 nm), and D2 (at λ = 420 nm) as plotted in the bottom right-hand side of Fig. 4. The top figures represent electromagnetic field distributions while the bottom figures show energy density and Poynting vector patterns within one grating period.

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Equations (1)

Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more.

A= 4n (n+1) 2 + κ 2 = 4 (κ/n) −1 κ [ κ(κ/n) ] 2 +κ
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