Diffractive and energy selective photonic crystals for thin-film tandem solar cells

Andreas Bielawny; Paul T. Miclea; Ralf B. Wehrspohn; Andreas von Rhein; Carsten Rockstuhl; Marian Lisca; Falk L. Lederer; Birger Lange; Rudolf Zentel; Reinhard Carius

doi:10.1117/12.733084

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11 September 2007 Diffractive and energy selective photonic crystals for thin-film tandem solar cells

Andreas Bielawny, Paul T. Miclea, Ralf B. Wehrspohn, Andreas von Rhein, Carsten Rockstuhl, Marian Lisca, Falk L. Lederer, Birger Lange, Rudolf Zentel, Reinhard Carius

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Proceedings Volume 6651, Photovoltaic Cell and Module Technologies; 665106 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733084
Event: Solar Energy + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We suggest an energy selective and diffractive optical element as intermediate layer in thin-film tandem solar cells. By adjusting the lattice constant of this photonic crystal, we fitted the optical properties to match a silicon tandem pair. Our device enhances the pathway of incident light within an amorphous silicon top cell in its spectral region of low absorption. In this spectral overlap region of the tandem-junction's quantum efficiencies, photons are being transferred towards the amorphous cell, which leads to an increase in the short-circuit current of the limiting top cell. From our simulations we expect a current increase of 1.44mA/cm² for an - amorphous/microcrystalline - silicon tandem cell, corresponding to improvement of the tandem's absolute efficiency of about 1.3%.

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Andreas Bielawny, Paul T. Miclea, Ralf B. Wehrspohn, Andreas von Rhein, Carsten Rockstuhl, Marian Lisca, Falk L. Lederer, Birger Lange, Rudolf Zentel, and Reinhard Carius "Diffractive and energy selective photonic crystals for thin-film tandem solar cells", Proc. SPIE 6651, Photovoltaic Cell and Module Technologies, 665106 (11 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.733084

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