0000000000624949
AUTHOR
Antonín Fejfar
Experimental quantification of useful and parasitic absorption of light in plasmon-enhanced thin silicon films for solar cells application
AbstractA combination of photocurrent and photothermal spectroscopic techniques is applied to experimentally quantify the useful and parasitic absorption of light in thin hydrogenated microcrystalline silicon (μc-Si:H) films incorporating optimized metal nanoparticle arrays, located at the rear surface, for improved light trapping via resonant plasmonic scattering. The photothermal technique accounts for the total absorptance and the photocurrent signal accounts only for the photons absorbed in the μc-Si:H layer (useful absorptance); therefore, the method allows for independent quantification of the useful and parasitic absorptance of the plasmonic (or any other) light trapping structure. W…
Direct measurement of optical losses in plasmon-enhanced thin silicon films (Conference Presentation)
Plasmon-enhanced absorption, often considered as a promising solution for efficient light trapping in thin film silicon solar cells, suffers from pronounced optical losses i.e. parasitic absorption, which do not contribute to the obtainable photocurrent. Direct measurements of such losses are therefore essential to optimize the design of plasmonic nanostructures and supporting layers. Importantly, contributions of useful and parasitic absorption cannot be measured separately with commonly used optical spectrophotometry. In this study we apply a novel strategy consisting in a combination of photocurrent and photothermal spectroscopic techniques to experimentally quantify the trade-off betwee…
Editorial for the Proceedings of the 2016 E-MRS Spring Meeting Symposium T - Advanced Materials and Characterization Techniques for Solar Cells III
Abstract This paper contains the editorial of the proceedings of the 2016 E-MRS spring meeting symposium T on “Advanced materials and characterization techniques for solar cells III”.