Enhanced absorption of thin-film photovoltaic cells using an optical cavity
Name
Thin-Film PV with Cavity-forReview-Revised.pdf
Size
802.84 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2f6e13ef0b5fe1fbd00f0db1af44d93e
Author(s)
Hsu, Wei-Chun
Chen, Gang
Weinstein, Lee Adragon
Yerci, Selcuk
Boriskina, Svetlana V.
Date Issued
April 2015
Journal
Journal of Optics
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Citation
Weinstein, Lee A, Wei-Chun Hsu, Selcuk Yerci, Svetlana V Boriskina, and Gang Chen. “Enhanced Absorption of Thin-Film Photovoltaic Cells Using an Optical Cavity.” J. Opt. 17, no. 5 (April 17, 2015): 055901.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
We show via numerical simulations that the absorption and solar energy conversion efficiency of a thin-film photovoltaic (PV) cell can be significantly enhanced by embedding it into an optical cavity. A reflective hemi-ellipsoid with an aperture for sunlight placed over a tilted PV cell reflects unabsorbed photons back to the cell, allowing for multiple opportunities for absorption. Ray tracing simulations predict that with the proposed cavity a textured thin-film silicon cell can exceed the Yablonovitch (Lambertian) limit for absorption across a broad wavelength range, while the performance of the cavity-embedded planar PV cell approaches that of the cell with the surface texturing.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1088/2040-8978/17/5/055901
