Photonic crystals in solar cells: A simulation approach

Peters M, Rüdiger M, Hermle M, Bläsi B (2010)

Publication Type: Conference contribution

Publication year: 2010

Journal

Proceedings of SPIE Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Book Volume: 7725

Conference Proceedings Title: Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

Event location: BEL

ISBN: 9780819481986

DOI: 10.1117/12.853865

Abstract

Diffractive effects have the potential to greatly increase light trapping in solar cells. The simulation of solar cells with diffractive elements is, however, difficult. The reason for this difficulty is that wave optical considerations are required. Typically, for solar cell simulations a ray tracing approach complemented by a transfer matrix algorithm is sufficient to simulate the optical properties. In this paper we present a more fundamental method to consider wave optical effects for solar cells. The optical characteristics of a solar cell are externally simulated using a wave optical approach and are used as input parameters for a simulation of the electrical characteristics. This coupled method is tested on an exemplary system; a solar cell with a backside diffractive grating. In a first step we show that substituting the optical parameters by externally simulated ones is expedient. Furthermore we show that diffractive effects, which hitherto could not be considered, can be made accessible for solar cell simulations. Additionally, the potential for a grating within a solar cell was investigated, resulting in an increase of 1% efficiency absolute for a crystalline silicon solar cell. © 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.

Involved external institutions

Fraunhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme (ISE) / Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Peters, M., Rüdiger, M., Hermle, M., & Bläsi, B. (2010). Photonic crystals in solar cells: A simulation approach. In Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. BEL.

MLA:

Peters, Marius, et al. "Photonic crystals in solar cells: A simulation approach." Proceedings of the Photonics for Solar Energy Systems III, BEL 2010.

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