Asymmetric metasurface structures for light absorption enhancement in thin film silicon solar cell

Abstract

Thin-film silicon solar cells with light-trapping structures can enhance light absorption within the semiconductor absorber layer. Metasurfaces, consisting of single-layer of planar structures, can be realized inexpensively by means of new nanopatterning techniques. Here we propose an asymmetric metasurface light trapping scheme that enables broadband absorption enhancement within c-Si thin film. Our numerical results demonstrate that the proposed metasurfaces exhibit better light trapping performance than the inverted pyramid that has been widely studied in recent years. Our work illustrates the impressive promise for metasurface structures used in thin film silicon solar cells.