Abstract
This paper presents the design and analysis of nano-structured gratings to improve the conversion efficiency in GaAs solar cells by reducing the light reflection losses. A finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulation tool is used to design and simulate the light reflection losses of the subwavelength grating (SWG) structure in GaAs solar cells. The SWG structures perform as an excellent alternative antireflective (AR) coating due to their capacity to reduce the reflection losses in GaAs solar cells. It allows the gradual change in the refractive index that confirms an excellent AR and the light trapping properties, when compared with the planar thin film structures. The nano-rod structure performs as a single layer AR coating, whereas the triangular (i.e., conical or perfect cone) and parabolic (i.e., trapezoidal/truncated cone) shaped nano-grating structures perform as a multilayer AR coating. The simulation results confirm that the reflection loss of triangular-shaped nano-grating structures having a 300-nm grating height and a 830-nm period is about 2%, which is about 28% less than the flat type substrates. It also found that the intermediate (i.e., trapezoidal and parabolic)-shaped structures, the light reflection loss is lower than the rectangular shaped nano-grating structure, but higher than the triangular shaped nano-grating structure. This analysis confirmed that the triangular shaped nano-gratings are an excellent alternative AR coating for conversion efficiency improvement in GaAs solar cells.
Highlights
Subwavelength grating (SWG) structures have been identified as promising candidates for realizing high conversion efficiency in photovoltaics or solar cells due to their small amount of reflection losses
If the period or pitch of a single grating structure is less than the wavelength of the incident light it behaves like a homogeneous medium with an effective refractive index [1]
AR coatings canequates reduceto the light reflection and increases reflection can be obtained when the refractive index equates to the square root of the refractive indices the conversion efficiency of solar cells
Summary
Subwavelength grating (SWG) structures have been identified as promising candidates for realizing high conversion efficiency in photovoltaics or solar cells due to their small amount of reflection losses. The SWG structures can provide gradual changes of the refractive index that confirm an excellent antireflective (AR) and light-trapping properties into the substrate compared to a planaror flat-type thin film substrates [1,2]. This type of nano-grating or nano-rod structure performs as a single layer AR coating, whereas the triangular (such as, conical or perfect cone) and parabolic shaped nano-grating structures are performing as a multilayer broadband AR coating [3,4,5,6,7,8].
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