Selective optical contacting for solar spectrum management

Jianfeng Yang; Weijian Chen; Bo Wang; Zhilong Zhang; Shujuan Huang; Santosh Shrestha; Xiaoming Wen; Robert Patterson; Gavin Conibeer

doi:10.1117/12.2251197

23 February 2017 Selective optical contacting for solar spectrum management

Jianfeng Yang, Weijian Chen, Bo Wang, Zhilong Zhang, Shujuan Huang, Santosh Shrestha, Xiaoming Wen, Robert Patterson, Gavin Conibeer

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 10099, Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices VI; 1009917 (2017) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2251197
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2017, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

Solar spectrum management using up/down conversion is an important method to improve the photovoltaic energy conversion efficiency. It asks for a monochromatic luminescence absorption at the band edge of the photovoltaic device to reduce both the sub-band-gap and over-band-gap energy losses. Here, we demonstrate an energy selective optical contacting concept to improve the luminescence transfer efficiency for spectrum management. By increasing both the luminescence emission and re-absorption ability through photonic resonance, an efficient photon transfer channel could be established between the luminescence emitter and the photovoltaic component in a near-field region. This concept is not only able to compensate the insufficient band edge absorption ability of the photovoltaic device, but also to break the far-field limitation of luminescence radiation. The energy selection on the optical spectrum naturally imposed by the mode resonance is also helpful to improve the monochromaticity of the luminescence yield. In this paper, a photonic crystal cavity is used to realize the optical contacting concept between a thin silicon film and spectrum converter. The optical power and photon flux transferred between different components are calculated analytically using the electromagnetic Green’s function. The corresponding radiative dipole moment is estimated by the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The example shows an over 80 times enhancement in the luminescence absorbance by the silicon layer, illustrating the great potential of this concept to be applied on nano-structured photovoltaic devices.

Citation Download Citation

Jianfeng Yang, Weijian Chen, Bo Wang, Zhilong Zhang, Shujuan Huang, Santosh Shrestha, Xiaoming Wen, Robert Patterson, and Gavin Conibeer "Selective optical contacting for solar spectrum management", Proc. SPIE 10099, Physics, Simulation, and Photonic Engineering of Photovoltaic Devices VI, 1009917 (23 February 2017); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2251197

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KEYWORDS

Luminescence

Photovoltaics

Near field optics

Absorption

Solar energy

Photonic crystals

Silicon

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