Template assisted fabrication technique towards Si-inverse opals with diamond structure

A method to fabricate silicon (Si) inverse opals with diamond structure is introduced. The method is based on the arrangement of silica particles in a template consisting of Si pillars periodically distributed. The profile of the pillars is specially designed to induce the self-organized growth of the particles in a diamond lattice along the (1 1 0) direction. Afterwards, the inverse structure is achieved by infiltrating the opal with Si and subsequently removing the silica by chemical means. Different from a former approach based on robotic manipulation, this method allows the fabrication of large samples available for integration in planar photonic devices.     

微量掺碳nc-SiC:H薄膜用于p-i-n太阳电池的窗口层

采用等离子增强化学气相沉积方法(PECVD)制备了微量掺碳的p型纳米非晶硅碳薄膜(p-nc-SiC：H)，反应气体为硅烷和甲烷，掺杂气体采用硼烷，沉积温度分别采用333K，353K和373K.测量结果表明随着沉积温度增加和碳含量的增加，薄膜的光学带隙增加；薄膜具有较宽的带隙和较高的电导率，同时有较低的激活能(0.06eV).Raman和XRD测量结果表明薄膜存在纳米晶.优化的p型纳米非晶硅碳薄膜作为非晶硅p-i-n太阳电池的窗口层，使得太阳电池的开路电压达到0.94V. 关键词： 光学带隙 纳米硅 薄膜 太阳能电池     

Wavelength comparison study for photocurrent and thickness in organic tandem solar cell with PF10TBT:PCBM by computational simulation

In this work, we have been investigating an organic tandem solar cells composed of PF10TBT:PCBM by using optical modeling and simulation method to investigate the correlation between thickness and photocurrent. Possible thickness pairs of tandem cell are provided when front layer and back layer absorb same amount of photons. In order to obtain the possible thickness pairs for different wavelengths, photocurrent has been simulated as function of back and front layer thickness. Energy dissipation in term of distance along cell and wavelengths were analyzed to interpret the optimal geometry of tandem cell. In order to find the appropriate materials for maximum efficiency, energy dissipation as function of optical constant (n) and wavelengths were simulated to derive the optimal condition.     

Photonic nanostructures for advanced light trapping in silicon solar cells: the impact of etching on the material electronic quality

Dry plasma etching, commonly used by the Photonics community as the etching technique for the fabrication of photonic nanostructures, could be a source of device performance limitations when used in the frame of silicon photovoltaics. So far, the lack of silicon solar cells with state‐of‐the‐art efficiencies utilizing nanophotonic concepts shows how challenging their integration is, owing to the trade‐off between optical and electrical properties. In this study we show that dry plasma etching results in the degradation of the silicon material quality due to (i) a high density of dangling bonds and (ii) the presence of sub‐surface defects, resulting in high surface recombination velocities and low minority carrier lifetimes. On the contrary, wet chemical anisotropic etching used as an alternative, leads to the formation of inverted nanopyramids that result in low surface recombination velocity and low density of dangling bonds. The proposed inverted nanopyramids could enable high efficiency photonic assisted solar cells by offering the potential to achieve higher short‐circuit current without degrading the open circuit voltage. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Thermally evaporated Ag nanoparticle films for plasmonic enhancement in organic solar cells: effects of particle geometry

We report on the simple fabrication of Ag NP films via thermal evaporation and subsequent annealing. The NPs are formed on indium tin oxide electrodes, coated with PEDOT:PSS and implemented into PCPDTBT:PC70BM solar cells. Scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy are used to determine the size distributions and surface coverage of the NP film. We apply finite‐difference time‐domain techniques to model the optical properties of different nanoparticle films and compare this with the absorption properties of the organic active layer. The simulations demonstrate that the absorption and scattering efficiency of the particles are very sensitive to particle geometry. Solar cells prepared with window electrodes containing NP layers with less surface coverage, show a 14.8% improvement in efficiency. We discuss variations in the external quantum efficiency of the devices in terms of forward scattering and parasitic absorption losses induced by the NP layer. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)