Simulation of optical properties of Si wire cells

authored by: Pietro P. Altermatt, Yang Yang, Thomas Langer, Andreas Schenk, Rolf Brendel
Abstract: We solve the Maxwell equations to quantify the amount of photo-generation in Si solar cells consisting of arrays of wires instead of bulk thin-films. Published transmission and reflectance measurements suggest that an array of Si wires absorbs sunlight very effectively due to strong diffraction and scattering. However, a detailed theoretical understanding and quantification of the actual photogeneration is only in its initial stage. In our simulations, the geometrical parameters of the wires are synthesized by means of cluster simulations. Applying the finite element method, we are able to compute randomly aligned wires within manageable time limits and affordable computer capacity. We show that Si wires have strong photonic properties. For example, our simulations surpass the Lambertian limit (for isotropically incident light) at λ=1000 nm, as has been reported in many experiments.
Organisation(s): Solar Energy Section
External Organisation(s): Institute for Solar Energy Research (ISFH)
Sun Yat-Sen University
ETH Zurich
Type: Conference contribution
Pages: 972-977
No. of pages: 6
Publication date: 2009
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Control and Systems Engineering, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1109/PVSC.2009.5411125 (Access: Closed)
https://iis-people.ee.ethz.ch/~schenk/Altermatt_YLSB_09_SiWires.pdf (Access: Open)

BibTeX

@inproceedings{3af1f125bf394111858aa153fb945f07,
title = "Simulation of optical properties of Si wire cells",
abstract = "We solve the Maxwell equations to quantify the amount of photo-generation in Si solar cells consisting of arrays of wires instead of bulk thin-films. Published transmission and reflectance measurements suggest that an array of Si wires absorbs sunlight very effectively due to strong diffraction and scattering. However, a detailed theoretical understanding and quantification of the actual photogeneration is only in its initial stage. In our simulations, the geometrical parameters of the wires are synthesized by means of cluster simulations. Applying the finite element method, we are able to compute randomly aligned wires within manageable time limits and affordable computer capacity. We show that Si wires have strong photonic properties. For example, our simulations surpass the Lambertian limit (for isotropically incident light) at λ=1000 nm, as has been reported in many experiments.",
author = "Altermatt, {Pietro P.} and Yang Yang and Thomas Langer and Andreas Schenk and Rolf Brendel",
year = "2009",
doi = "10.1109/PVSC.2009.5411125",
language = "English",
isbn = "978-1-4244-2949-3",
series = "Conference Record of the IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference",
pages = "972--977",
booktitle = "2009 34th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference, PVSC 2009",
note = "34th IEEE Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (PVSC 2009) ; Conference date: 07-06-2009 Through 12-06-2009",
}