Photoabsorption efficiency improvement for photovoltaic solar cells by using the honeycomb nanostructures

Abstract

In this paper we propose a designs of solar cells based on III-V semiconductors which can deliver more efficient, less expensive solar cells. Recently proposed approaches to enhance the efficiency utilize the novel III-V nanomaterials containing quantum dots, and new concepts like intermediate bandgap quantum dot based solar cells promise the efficiency over 50% [1]. Needs for thin flexible space solar cells are supposed to be fulfilled with Inverted Metamorphic Multijunction (IMM) solar [2]. In this paper we consider the alternative design of flexible solar cells which is based on a honeycomb nanostructure consisting of embedded semiconductor pillars in a flexible film [3]. Such nanostructures are flexible and solar cells therefore are suitable for wider range of applications compared to ones with solid panel design, and are less expensive due to the smaller fraction of the active semiconductor material. However this kind of design may reduce the efficiency of the solar cell due to the volume filling factor.