3D-printed external light trap for solar cells.
We present a universally applicable 3D-printed external light trap for enhanced absorption in solar cells. The macroscopic external light trap is placed at the sun-facing surface of the solar cell and retro-reflects the light that would otherwise escape. The light trap consists of a reflective parabolic concentrator placed on top of a reflective cage. Upon placement of the light trap, an improvement of 15% of both the photocurrent and the power conversion efficiency in a thin-film nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) solar cell is measured. The trapped light traverses the solar cell several times within the reflective cage thereby increasing the total absorption in the cell. Consequently, the trap reduces optical losses and enhances the absorption over the entire spectrum. The components of the light trap are 3D printed and made of smoothened, silver-coated thermoplastic. In contrast to conventional light trapping methods, external light trapping leaves the material quality and the electrical properties of the solar cell unaffected. To explain the theoretical operation of the external light trap, we introduce a model that predicts the absorption enhancement in the solar cell by the external light trap. The corresponding calculated path length enhancement shows good agreement with the empirically derived value from the opto-electrical data of the solar cell. Moreover, we analyze the influence of the angle of incidence on the parasitic absorptance to obtain full understanding of the trap performance. © 2015 The Authors.Progress in Photovoltaics: Research and Applicationspublished by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Nanophotonics - Physics of Devices, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science Utrecht University, High Tech Campus, Building 21 AE Eindhoven 5656 The Netherlands.
Lourens
L
van Dijk
Institut für Energie- und Klimaforschung 5 Photovoltaik Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH Jülich 52425 Germany.
Ulrich W
UW
Paetzold
Molecular Biophysics, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science Utrecht University Princetonplein 1 CC Utrecht 3584 The Netherlands.
Gerhard A
GA
Blab
Department of Applied Physics, Plasma and Materials Processing Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) MB Eindhoven 5600 The Netherlands.
Ruud E I
RE
Schropp
Nanophotonics - Physics of Devices, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science Utrecht University, High Tech Campus, Building 21 AE Eindhoven 5656 The Netherlands.
Marcel
M
di Vece
3D printing; anti‐reflection; compound parabolic concentrator (CPC); external light trapping; thin‐film solar cells
Opt Express. 2008 Dec 22;16(26):21608-15
19104592
Opt Express. 2014 May 5;22 Suppl 3:A715-22
24922379
Opt Express. 2011 Jul 4;19 Suppl 4:A664-72
21747533
Nano Lett. 2012 Mar 14;12(3):1616-9
22356436
Opt Express. 2014 Mar 10;22 Suppl 2:A521-7
24922261
Prog Photovolt. 2016 May;24(5):623-633
27667911
Opt Lett. 2013 Aug 15;38(16):3177-80
24104680
Opt Express. 2011 Mar 14;19 Suppl 2:A136-45
21445215
Nat Mater. 2014 Feb;13(2):103-4
24452342
Opt Express. 2013 Sep 9;21(18):20738-46
24103947
Opt Express. 2012 Sep 10;20 Suppl 5:A641-54
23037531
Nat Mater. 2012 Feb 21;11(3):174-7
22349847
Opt Express. 2010 Jun 21;18 Suppl 2:A133-8
20588581
Opt Express. 2013 May 6;21 Suppl 3:A305-12
24104418