Semiperiodicity versus periodicity for ultra broadband optical absorption in thin-film solar cells

Abstract

We propose the use of one-dimensional semiperiodic front and back gratings based on Thue–Morse, Fibonacci, and Rudin–Shapiro (RS) binary sequences as promising photon management techniques for enhancing ultra-broadband optical absorption in thin-film solar cells. The semiperiodicity allows an aggregate light in-coupling into the active layer within the range of the solar spectrum that is less weak compared to an inherently broadband random grating, but has a much larger bandwidth than the strong in-coupling via a periodic grating configuration. The proper design procedure proposed here deviates from a canonical double grating synthesis as it adheres to an ultra-broadband design where the spectrally integrated absorption in the active material is the proper subject to optimization, leaving the grating perturbations just a measure to perturb and mold the trapped light field in the active layer accordingly. It is shown that by using a well-defined RS double grating in a 400-nm thick crystalline silicon solar cell, a 110.2% enhancement of the spectrally integrated optical absorption can be achieved relative to the reference case without grating.