Solar Cell Microscale Texturing Reduces Back Reflections

The high index contrast between most semiconductor materials and air results in large back reflections of solar radiation from the upper surface of solar cells. To reduce this unwanted back reflection, optical designers have explored introducing microscale surface texturing on solar cell surfaces. Whether surface roughness or periodic patterning, surface texturing can reduce light reflections from solar cell surfaces, and increase the amount of light transmitted into the solar cell which can be absorbed and converted into electricity.

Applicable Products to Textured Surface Antireflection Film Solar Cell Design

Lumerical's device TCAD simulator DEVICE can help you:

• Build a 3D model of your solar cell design including the impurity concentration profiles and contact geometry. Import geometric data from FDTD solutions or GDSII mask files
• Model  textured surfaces accurately using a finite element mesh which conforms to arbitrary and complex surface geometries
• Accurately model semiconductor materials accounting for surface and bulk recombination through detailed models. Define your own semiconductor material models, or use predefined models for common semiconductors like silicon.
• Calculate the collection efficiency of electron / hole carriers for arbitrary optical generation spatial profiles, imported from FDTD Solutions or other optical simulation tools
• Characterize your device and calculate device performance metrics like energy conversion efficiency, quantum efficiency, fill factor and maximum power point
• Optimize your solar cell texture using the built-in parameter sweep and optimization framework
• Obtain accurate results quickly by taking advantage of Lumerical's concurrent computing technology to dispatch simulation jobs to multiple computers on your network

Featured Textured Surface Solar Cells Publications using Lumerical Products

	Zhiyong Fan at al., "Ordered Arrays of Dual-Diameter Nanopillars for Maximized Optical Absorption,"Nano Letters 2010 10 (10), 3823-3827.
	MD Kelzenberg, DB Turner-Evans, MC Putnam,"High-performance Si microwire photovoltaics",Energy Environ. Sci., 2011,4, 866-871
	J Tang, Z Huo, S Brittman, H Gao,"Solution-processed core-shell nanowires for efficient photovoltaic cells",Nature Nanotechnology, 2011 - nature.com

See the complete list of publications featuring Lumerical⇒