0000000000115747

AUTHOR

Carsten Rockstuhl

3D photonic crystal intermediate reflectors for enhanced light-trapping in tandem solar cells

The concept of 3D photonic crystals embedded in tandem solar cells as intermediate reflective layers is investigated. Numerical as well as experimental results will be presented.

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Three-dimensional photonic crystal intermediate reflectors for enhanced light-trapping in tandem solar cells

A three-dimensional photonic crystal intermediate reflector for enhanced light trapping in tandem solar cells is presented. The intermediate reflector consists of a transparent and conductive ZnO:Al inverted opal sandwiched in between the top amorphous silicon and bottom microcrystalline silicon cell.

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Photonic crystal intermediate reflector in micromorph tandem solar cells

Experimental and numerical evidences are presented which show that the efficiency of silicon based tandem solar-cells can be increased by incorporating a three-dimensional photonic crystal as an intermediate reflector.

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3D photonic crystal intermediate reflector for micromorph thin-film tandem solar cell

The concept of 3D photonic intermediate reflectors for micromorph silicon tandem solar cells has been investigated. In thin-film silicon tandem solar cells consisting of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon with two junctions of a-Si/μc-Si, efficiency enhancements can be achieved by increasing the current density in the a-Si top cell. It is one goal to provide an optimized current matching at high current densities. For an ideal photon-management between top and bottom cell, a spectrally selective intermediate reflective layer (IRL) is necessary, which is less dependent of the angle of incidence than state-of-the-art thickness dependent massive interlayers. The design, preparation and cha…

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Micromorph silicon tandem solar cells with fully integrated 3D photonic crystal intermediate reflectors

A 3D photonic intermediate reflector for textured micromorph silicon tandem solar cells has been investigated. In thin-film silicon tandem solar cells consisting of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon with two junctions of a-Si/c-Si, efficiency enhancements can be achieved by increasing the current density in the a-Si top cell providing an optimized current matching at high current densities. For an ideal photon-management between top and bottom cell, a spectrally-selective intermediate reflective layer (IRL) is necessary. We present the first fully-integrated 3D photonic thin-film IRL device incorporated on a planar substrate. Using a ZnO inverted opal structure the external quantum eff…

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Optically assisted trapping with high-permittivity dielectric rings: Towards optical aerosol filtration

Controlling the transport, trapping, and filtering of nanoparticles is important for many applications. By virtue of their weak response to gravity and their thermal motion, various physical mechanisms can be exploited for such operations on nanoparticles. However, the manipulation based on optical forces is potentially most appealing since it constitutes a highly deterministic approach. Plasmonic nanostructures have been suggested for this purpose, but they possess the disadvantages of locally generating heat and trapping the nanoparticles directly on surface. Here, we propose the use of dielectric rings made of high permittivity materials for trapping nanoparticles. Thanks to their abilit…

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New Twists of 3D Chiral Metamaterials

Rationally designed artificial materials, called metamaterials, allow for tailoring effective material properties beyond ("meta") the properties of their bulk ingredient materials. This statement is especially true for chiral metamaterials, as unlocking certain degrees of freedom necessarily requires broken centrosymmetry. While the field of chiral electromagnetic/optical metamaterials has become rather mature, the field of elastic/mechanical metamaterials is just emerging and wide open. This research news reviews recent theoretical and experimental progress concerning 3D chiral mechanical and optical metamaterials, with special emphasis on work performed at KIT.

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