Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings
The front-coating (FC) of a solar cell controls its efficiency, determining admission of light into the absorbing material and potentially trapping light to enhance thin absorbers. Single-layer FC designs are well known, especially for thick absorbers where their only purpose is to reduce reflection...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Optical Society of America
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80276 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-4967 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5994-0396 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7244-3682 |
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| author | Ghebrebrhan, Michael Bermel, Peter A. Joannopoulos, John D. Johnson, Steven G. Avniel, Yehuda B. |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies Ghebrebrhan, Michael Bermel, Peter A. Joannopoulos, John D. Johnson, Steven G. Avniel, Yehuda B. |
| author_sort | Ghebrebrhan, Michael |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The front-coating (FC) of a solar cell controls its efficiency, determining admission of light into the absorbing material and potentially trapping light to enhance thin absorbers. Single-layer FC designs are well known, especially for thick absorbers where their only purpose is to reduce reflections. Multilayer FCs could improve performance, but require global optimization to design. For narrow bandwidths, one can always achieve nearly 100% absorption. For the entire solar bandwidth, however, a second FC layer improves performance by 6.1% for 256 μm wafer-based cells, or by 3.6% for 2 μm thin-film cells, while additional layers yield rapidly diminishing returns. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:56:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/80276 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T12:56:09Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Optical Society of America |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/802762022-10-01T11:57:32Z Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings Ghebrebrhan, Michael Bermel, Peter A. Joannopoulos, John D. Johnson, Steven G. Avniel, Yehuda B. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Ghebrebrhan, Michael Bermel, Peter A. Avniel, Yehuda B. Joannopoulos, John D. Johnson, Steven G. The front-coating (FC) of a solar cell controls its efficiency, determining admission of light into the absorbing material and potentially trapping light to enhance thin absorbers. Single-layer FC designs are well known, especially for thick absorbers where their only purpose is to reduce reflections. Multilayer FCs could improve performance, but require global optimization to design. For narrow bandwidths, one can always achieve nearly 100% absorption. For the entire solar bandwidth, however, a second FC layer improves performance by 6.1% for 256 μm wafer-based cells, or by 3.6% for 2 μm thin-film cells, while additional layers yield rapidly diminishing returns. National Science Foundation (U.S.). Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (Program) (Grant DMR 02-13282) Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (United States. Army Research Office Contract DAAD-19-02-D0002) 2013-08-26T19:06:03Z 2013-08-26T19:06:03Z 2009-04 2009-03 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 1094-4087 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80276 Ghebrebrhan, Michael, Peter Bermel, Yehuda Avniel, John D. Joannopoulos, and Steven G. Johnson. “Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings.” Optics Express 17, no. 9 (April 22, 2009): 7505. © 2009 Optical Society of America https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-4967 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5994-0396 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7244-3682 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.17.007505 Optics Express Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf Optical Society of America MIT web domain |
| spellingShingle | Ghebrebrhan, Michael Bermel, Peter A. Joannopoulos, John D. Johnson, Steven G. Avniel, Yehuda B. Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings |
| title | Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings |
| title_full | Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings |
| title_fullStr | Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings |
| title_short | Global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings |
| title_sort | global optimization of silicon photovoltaic cell front coatings |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/80276 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-4967 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5994-0396 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7244-3682 |
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