title: Understanding light harvesting in radial junction amorphous silicon thin film solar cells.
abstract: The radial junction (RJ) architecture has proven beneficial for the design of a new generation of high performance thin film photovoltaics. We herein carry out a comprehensive modeling of the light in-coupling, propagation and absorption profile within RJ thin film cells based on an accurate set of material properties extracted from spectroscopic ellipsometry measurements. This has enabled us to understand and evaluate the impact of varying several key parameters on the light harvesting in radially formed thin film solar cells. We found that the resonance mode absorption and antenna-like light in-coupling behavior in the RJ cell cavity can lead to a unique absorption distribution in the absorber that is very different from the situation expected in a planar thin film cell, and that has to be taken into account in the design of high performance RJ thin film solar cells. When compared to the experimental EQE response of real RJ solar cells, this modeling also provides an insightful and powerful tool to resolve the wavelength-dependent contributions arising from individual RJ units and/or from strong light trapping due to the presence of the RJ cell array.
authors.affiliation: 1] School of Electronics Science and Engineering/National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China [2] Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et Couches Minces (LPICM), Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Linwei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et Couches Minces (LPICM), Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Soumyadeep
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Misra
authors.affiliation: School of Electronics Science and Engineering/National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Junzhuan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Electronics Science and Engineering/National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Shengyi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et Couches Minces (LPICM), Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Foldyna
authors.affiliation: School of Electronics Science and Engineering/National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: School of Electronics Science and Engineering/National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, 210093, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et Couches Minces (LPICM), Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Erik
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique des Interfaces et Couches Minces (LPICM), Ecole Polytechnique/CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau, France.
authors.forename: Pere Roca I
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Cabarrocas
mesh_terms: D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D012993:Solar Energy; D013472:Sunlight
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D012825:Silicon