title: Thin film solar cell design based on photonic crystal and diffractive grating structures.
abstract: In this paper we present novel light trapping designs applied to multiple junction thin film solar cells. The new designs incorporate one dimensional photonic crystals as band pass filters that reflect short light wavelengths (400 - 867 nm) and transmit longer wavelengths(867 -1800 nm) at the interface between two adjacent cells. In addition, nano structured diffractive gratings that cut into the photonic crystal layers are incorporated to redirect incoming waves and hence increase the optical path length of light within the solar cells. Two designs based on the nano structured gratings that have been realized using the scattering matrix and particle swarm optimization methods are presented. We also show preliminary fabrication results of the proposed devices.
authors.affiliation: Dept of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, 151 Evans Hall Newark, Delaware 19716, USA. mutitu@mail.eecis.udel.edu
authors.forename: James G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Mutitu
authors.forename: Shouyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Caihua
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Timothy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Creazzo
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barnett
authors.forename: Christiana
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Honsberg
authors.forename: Dennis W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Prather
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D017785:Photons; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012993:Solar Energy
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial