Comparison of metal/polymer back reflectors with half-sphere, blazed, and pyramid gratings for light trapping in III-V solar cells

Timo Aho, Mircea Guina, Farid Elsehrawy, Federica Cappelluti, Marianna Raappana, Antti Tukiainen, A. B.M. Khairul Alam, Ismo Vartiainen, Markku Kuittinen, Tapio Niemi

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

    18 Citations (Scopus)
    27 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    We report on the fabrication of diffraction gratings for application as back contact reflectors. The gratings are designed for thin-film solar cells incorporating absorbers with bandgap slightly lower than GaAs, i.e. InAs quantum dot or GaInNAs solar cells. Light trapping in the solar cells enables the increase of the absorption leading to higher short circuit current densities and higher efficiencies. We study metal/polymer back reflectors with half-sphere, blazed, and pyramid gratings, which were fabricated either by photolithography or by nanoimprint lithography. The gratings are compared in terms of the total and the specular reflectance, which determine their diffraction capabilities, i.e.The feature responsible for increasing the absorption. The pyramid grating showed the highest diffuse reflection of light compared to the half-sphere structure and the blazed grating. The diffraction efficiency measurements were in agreement with the numerical simulations. The validated model enables designing such metal/polymer back reflectors for other type of solar cells by refining the optimal dimensions of the gratings for different wavelength ranges.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)A331-A340
    JournalOptics Express
    Volume26
    Issue number6
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 19 Mar 2018
    Publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

    Publication forum classification

    • Publication forum level 2

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

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