Using thin films of crystalline silicon to make solar cells reduces the cost by reducing the amount of material needed and
allowing poorer quality material with shorter carrier diffusion lengths to be used. However, the indirect band gap of
silicon requires that a light trapping approach be used to maximize optical absorption. Here, a photonic crystal (PC)
based approach is used to maximize solar light harvesting in a 400 nm-thick silicon layer by tuning the coupling strength
of incident radiation to quasiguided modes over a broad spectral range. The structure consists of a double layer PC. We
show an enhancement of maximum achievable photocurrent density from 7.1 mA/cm2 for an unstructured film to 21.8
mA/cm2 for a structured film for normal incidence. This photocurrent density value approaches the limit of 26.5
mA/cm2, obtained using the Yablonovitch light trapping limit for the same volume of active material.
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