This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9743, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction (if any), and Conference Committee listing.

A monolithic compound semiconductor phototransducer optimized for narrow-band light sources was designed for and has achieved conversion efficiencies exceeding 50%. The III-V heterostructure was grown by MOCVD, based on the vertical stacking of a number of partially absorbing GaAs n/p junctions connected in series with tunnel junctions. The thicknesses of the p-type base layers of the diodes were engineered for optimal absorption and current matching for an optical input with wavelengths centered in the 830 nm to 850 nm range. The device architecture allows for improved open-circuit voltage in the individual base segments due to efficient carrier extraction while simultaneously maintaining a complete absorption of the input photons with no need for complicated fabrication processes or reflecting layers. Progress for device outputs achieving in excess of 12 V is reviewed in this study.

Energetic and entropic issues are theoretically addressed in quantum optoelectronic nanodevices. We rely on the nonequilibrium Green's function methodology to provide a framework which combines optoelectronics and thermodynamics in a unified picture of energy conversion for nanoscaled optoelectronics. Indeed, we follow the self-consistent Born approximation to derive the formal expressions of energy and entropy currents owing inside a nanodevice only interacting with light. These expressions are numerically evaluated in a quantum-dot based nanodevice, where verification of the second law of thermodynamics raises questioning about the system model. We here put the focus on the spontaneous emission energy current to discuss the question.

For solar cells composed of direct bandgap semiconductors such as GaAs, the performance can be significantly improved by utilizing photon recycling and luminescence coupling effects. Accurate modeling with those effects may offer insightful guidance in designing such devices. Previous research has demonstrated different numerical models on photon recycling and luminescent coupling. However, most of those works are based on complicated theoretical derivation and idealized assumptions, which made them hard to implement. In addition, very few works provide method to model both photon recycling and luminescent coupling effects. In this paper, we demonstrate an easy-to-implement but accurate numerical model to simulate those effects in multijunction solar cells. Our numerical model can be incorporated into commonly used equivalent circuit model with high accuracy. The simulation results were compared with experimental data and exhibit good consistency. Our numerical simulation is based on a self-consistent optical-electrical model that includes non-ideal losses in both the single junction and the tandem device. Based on the numerical analysis, we modified the two-diode circuit model by introducing additional current-control-current sources to represent the effects of both photon recycling and luminescence coupling. The effects of photon recycling on the diode equation have been investigated based on detailed-balanced model, accounting for internal optical losses. We also showed the practical limit of performance enhancement of photon recycling and luminescent coupling effects. This work will potentially facilitate the accurate simulation of solar cell with non-ideal effects, and provide more efficient tools for multijunction solar cell design and optimization.

A numerical model for PEDOT:PSS/SiNW hybrid solar cell has been developed and the structure has been simulated and analyzed. The limiting factor leading to low open circuit voltage (V_oc) in PEDOT:PSS/SiNW hybrid solar cell is investigated. By adding a p-type silicon layer into the device to create an electric field in the silicon layer, the recombination at interface is improved and the V_oc increases. The efficiency is improved to over 15% and more optimized work can be done in the future.

In the present study, we develop a contactless optical characterization tool that quantifies and maps the trapping defects density within a thin film photovoltaic device. This is achieved by probing time-resolved photoluminescence and numerically reconstructing the experimental decays under several excitation conditions. The values of defects density in different Cu(In,Ga)Se2 solar cells were extracted and linked to photovoltaic performances such as the open-circuit voltage. In the second part of the work, the authors established a micrometric map of the trapping defects density. This revealed areas within the thin film CIGS solar cell with low photovoltaic performance and high trapping defects density. This proves that the developed tool can be used to qualify and quantify the buffer layer/absorber interface properties. The final part of the work was dedicated to finding the origin of the spatial fluctuations of the thin film transport properties. To do so, we started by establishing a micrometric map of the absolute quasi-Fermi levels splitting within the same CIGS solar cell, using the hyperspectral imager. A correlation is obtained between the map of quasi-Fermi levels splitting of and the map of the trapping defects density. The latter is found to be the origin of the frequently observed spatial fluctuations of thin film materials properties.

We developed methodologies and calibration standards for absolute electroluminescence (EL) measurements for CONTACT-LESS evaluation of various internal properties of multi-junction and arrayed solar cells, such as open-circuit voltages, external and internal radiative efficiencies, and luminescence-coupling efficiency. Several independent calibration methods were compared that used: 1) a calibrated EL imaging system, 2) proximity measurement with a large-area photodiode, 3) an integrating-sphere system, and 4) planar light-emitting diodes with a circular aperture. The comparison clarified the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and showed consistency within 30% uncertainty, resulting in a 7-meV uncertainty in open-circuit voltage measurements.

Luminescent coupling effects are considered crucial for the performance of multijunction solar cells. We report a novel approach based on small signal measurement, which can directly measure the luminescent coupling efficiency of a multijunction solar cell with different voltage bias. In addition, this method demonstrated the light and voltage dependence of the coupling efficiency, and can potentially lead to a deeper understanding of luminescent coupling effects as well as more effective design of multijunction solar cells.

Luminescent down-shifting (LDS) is a simple, powerful tool for increasing the range of solar irradiance that can be efficiently utilized by photovoltaic devices. We developed an optical model to simulate the ideal optical properties (absorbance, transmittance, luminescence quantum yield, etc.) of LDS layers for solar cells. We evaluated which quantum efficiencies and which optical densities are necessary to achieve an improvement in solar cell performance. In particular we considered copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) devices. Our model relies on experimentally measured data for the transmission and emission spectra as well as for the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the solar cell. By combining experimental work with this optical model, we aim to propose an environmentally friendly technology for coating thick (300-500 μm), efficient luminescent down-shifting layers. These layers consist of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and organic UV-converting fluorescent dyes. The absorption coefficients and luminescence quantum yields of the dyes were determined both in a solution of the solvent benzyl alcohol and in the solid polymer layers. This data shows that the dyes retain luminescence quantum yields of approximately 90% after solution-processing. The produced layers were then applied to CIGS solar cells, thereby improving the EQE of the devices in the UV region. At a wavelength of 390 nm, for instance, the EQE increased from 18% to 53%. These values closely agree with the theoretically calculated ones. The proposed technology, thus, provides a pathway toward efficient, fully solutionprocessable encapsulated photovoltaic modules.

Optimization of non-planar antireflective coating and back- (or front-) surface texturing are widely studied as advanced light management approach to further reduce the reflection losses and increase the sunlight absorption path in solar cells. Rear reflectors have been developed from coherent mirrors to incoherent mirrors in order to further increase light path, which can significantly improve the efficiency and allow for much thinner devices. A Lambertian surface, which has the most random texture, can theoretically raise the light path to 4n² times that of a smooth surface. It’s a challenge however to fabricate ideal Lambertian texture, especially in a fast and low cost way. In this work, a method is developed to overcome this challenge that combines the use of laser interference lithography (LIL) and selective wet etching. This approach allows for a rapid (10 min) wafer scale (3 inch wafer) texture processing with sub-wavelength (nano)-scale control of the pattern and the pitch. The technique appears as being particularly attractive for the development of ultrathin III-V devices, or in overcoming the weak sub-bandgap absorption in devices incorporating quantum dots or quantum wells. The structure of the device is demonstrated, without affecting active layers.

Thin film silicon based photovoltaic cells have the advantages of using low cost nontoxic abundant constituents and low thermal manufacturing budget. However, better long-term efficiencies need to be achieved overcoming its inherent bad electrical properties of amorphous and/or microcrystalline Silicon. For the goal of achieving best results, multijunction cells of amorphous and microcrystalline silicon thin layers are industrially and lab utilized in addition to using one or more light management techniques such as textured layers, periodic and plasmonic back reflectors, flattened reflective substrates and intermediate reflector layer (IRL) between multijunction cells. The latter, IRL, which is the focus of this paper, serves as spectrally selective layer between different cells of the multijunction silicon thin film solar cell. IRL, reflects to the top cell short wavelength while permitting and scattering longer ones to achieve the best possible short circuit current. In this study, a new optimized periodic design of Intermediate reflector layer in micromorph (two multijunction cells of Microcrystalline and Amorphous Silicon) thin film solar cells is proposed. The optically simulated short circuit current reaches record values for same thickness designs when using all-ZnO design and even better results is anticipated if Lacquer material is used in combination with ZnO. The design methodology used in the paper can be easily applied to different types of IRL materials and also extended to triple and the relatively newly proposed quadruple thin films solar cells.

From few millimeters to few hundreds of micrometers, solar cells used in CPV systems are made smaller and smaller, to benefit from the lower influence of the temperature and series resistance. We propose in this work microconcentration systems adapted to thin film microcells arrays. Due to the miniaturization, the complete system is expected to be very compact, lightweight, enabling a simple tracking. First, a numerical study has been performed to evaluate an optimal design with only plano-spherical microlenses with a geometrical ratio of 100x and an acceptance angle around +/- 3°. Second, a fabrication process has been developed to realize the designed system. Arrays of 2500 microlenses with a diameter between 300 and 500μm and a focal length around 1mm have been created. Finally, we propose a first prototype coupling 2500 microcells and microlenses arrays for middle concentration applications.

Despite the wealth of research conducted the last three years on hybrid organic perovskites (HOP), several questions remain open including: to what extend the organic moiety changes the properties of the material as compared to allinorganic (AIP) related perovskite structures. To ultimately reach an answer to this question, we have recently introduced two approaches that were designed to take the stochastic molecular degrees of freedom into account, and suggested that the high temperature cubic phase of HOP and AIP is an appropriate reference phase to rationalize HOP’s properties. In this paper, we recall the main concepts and discuss more specifically the various possible couplings between charge carriers and low energy excitations such as acoustic and optical phonons. As available experimental or simulated data on low energy excitations are limited, we also present preliminary neutron scattering and ultrasonic measurements obtained and freshly prepared single crystals of CH₃NH₃PbBr₃.

A method based on DFT is used to obtained dielectric profiles. The high frequency Ɛ∞(z) and the static Ɛ_s(z) dielectric profiles are compared for 3D, 2D-3D and 2D Hybrid Organic Perovskites (HOP). A dielectric confinement is observed for the 2D materials between the high dielectric constant of the inorganic part and the low dielectric constant of the organic part. The effect of the ionic contribution on the dielectric constant is also shown. The quantum and dielectric confinements of 3D HOP nanoplatelets are then reported. Finally, a numerical simulation based on the SILVACO code of a HOP based solar cell is proposed for various permittivity of MAPbI₃.

Several research groups are developing solar cells of varying designs and materials that are high efficiency as well as cost competitive with the single junction silicon (Si) solar cells commercially produced today. One of these solar cell designs is a tandem junction solar cell comprised of perovskite (CH₃NH₃PbI₃) and silicon (Si). Loper et al.¹ was able to create a 13.4% efficient tandem cell using a perovskite top cell and a Si bottom cell, and researchers are confident that the perovskite/Si tandem cell can be optimized in order to reach higher efficiencies without introducing expensive manufacturing processes. However, there are currently no commercially available software capable of modeling a tandem cell that is based on a thin-film based bottom cell and a wafer-based top cell. While PC1D² and SCAPS³ are able to model tandem cells comprised solely of thin-film absorbers or solely of wafer-based absorbers, they result in convergence errors if a thin-film/wafer-based tandem cell, such as the perovskite/ Si cell, is modeled. The Matlab-based analytical model presented in this work is capable of modeling a thin-film/wafer-based tandem solar cell. The model allows a user to adjust the top and bottom cell parameters, such as reflectivity, material bandgaps, donor and acceptor densities, and material thicknesses, in order to optimize the short circuit current, open circuit voltage, and quantum efficiency of the tandem solar cell. Using the Matlab-based analytical model, we were able optimize a perovskite/Si tandem cell with an efficiency greater than 30%.

Ultra thin absorbers for the hot carrier solar cell applications are promising. Indeed, in these ultimate absorbers electronphonon scattering are reduced and thickness can be lower than the electron mean-free-path. In this case carriers reach contact ballistically. However it is important that the contact permits to extract these carriers. This theoretical study is about the extraction of the photogenerated carriers and particularly the ballistic extraction without any scattering. We show that quantum interaction between the ultra-thin absorber and the contact can be used to enhance the extraction. Particularly, a contact composed of a quantum well into a double barrier permits to increase the current compared to a simple contact. This improvement is due to a quantum resonance. This result is interesting for the hot carrier solar cells but also for all the ultra-thin cells.

The hot carrier solar cell is a very promising clean energy technology, with the potential to achieve high conversion yields with constrained costs. Due to the hot carrier effect, the estimation of the achievable voltage needs some theoretical developments. The classical approach is to consider isentropic energy selective contacts, converting the excess of kinetic energy of the hot carriers into electrical potential energy. Here we show the differences between the ideal case of isentropic contacts and the more realistic one, with an output voltage of the cell depending on the transmission function. We particularly emphasize the importance of the transmission function of the contact on both output current and output voltage, modifying thereby the classical view of the output power dependence on the transmission function.

In order to understand the radiation effects in space-used multi-junction solar cells, we characterized degradations of internal radiative efficiency (η_{int i} ) in respective subcells in InGaP/GaAs double-junction solar cells after 1-MeV electron irradiations with different electrons fluences (Φ) via absolute electroluminescence (EL) measurements, because η_{int i} purely represents material-quality change due to radiation damage, independently from cell structures. We analyzed the degradation of η_{int i} under different Φ and found that the data of η_{int i} versus Φ in moderate and high Φ regions are very similar and almost independent of subcell materials, while the difference in beginning-of-life qualities of InGaP and GaAs materials causes dominant difference in sub-cell sensitivity to the low radiation damages. Finally, a simple model was proposed to explain the mechanism in degradation of η_{int i}, and also well explained the degradation behavior in open-circuit voltage for these multi-junction solar cells.

A twelve-junction monolithically-integrated GaAs phototransducer device with >60% power conversion efficiency and >14 V open-circuit voltage under monochromatic illumination is presented. Drift-diffusion based simulations including a luminescent coupled generation term are used to study photon recycling and luminescent coupling between each junction. We find that luminescent coupling effectively redistributes any excess generated photocurrent between all junctions leading to reduced wavelength sensitivity. This broadened response is consistent with experimental measurements of devices with high-quality materials exhibiting long carrier lifetimes. Photon recycling is also found to significantly improve the voltage of all junctions, in contrast to multi-junction solar cells which utilize junctions of differing bandgaps and where high-bandgap junctions benefit less from photon recycling.

PV devices with active areas of ~3:4 mm² were fabricated and tested with top electrodes having different emitter gridline spacings with active area shadowing values between 0% and 1.8%. As expected, the thicker n/p junctions exhibit hindered photocarrier extraction, with low fill factor (FF) values, for devices prepared with sparse gridline designs. However, this study clearly demonstrates that for thin n/p junctions photocarrier extraction can still be efficient (FF > 80%) even for devices with no gridlines, which we explain using a TCAD model. The electric field profiles of devices with and without hindered photocarrier extraction are also discussed.

Lattice-mismatched 1.7eV Al_0.2Ga_0.8As photovoltaic solar cells have been monolithically grown on Si substrates using Solid Source Molecular Beam Epitaxy (SSMBE). As a consequence of the 4%-lattice-mismatch, threading dislocations (TDs) nucleate at the interface between the Si substrate and III-V epilayers and propagate to the active regions of the cell. There they act as recombination centers and degrade the performances of the cell. In our case, direct AlAs/GaAs superlattice growth coupled with InAlAs/AlAs strained layer superlattice (SLS) dislocation filter layers (DFLSs) have been used to reduce the TD density from 1×10⁹cm^-2 to 1(±0.2)×10⁷cm^-2. Lattice-matched Al0.2Ga0.8As cells have also been grown on GaAs as a reference. The best cell grown on silicon exhibits a Voc of 964mV, compared with a V_oc of 1128mV on GaAs. Fill factors of respectively 77.6% and 80.2% have been calculated. Due to the lack of an anti-reflection coating and the non-optimized architecture of the devices, relatively low J_sc have been measured: 7.30mA.cm^-2 on Si and 6.74mA.cm^-2 on GaAs. The difference in short-circuit currents is believed to be caused by a difference of thickness between the samples due to discrepancies in the calibration of the MBE prior to each growth. The bandgap-voltage offset of the cells, defined as E_g/q-V_oc, is relatively high on both substrates with 736mV measured on Si versus 572mV on GaAs. The non-negligible TD density partly explains this result on Si. On GaAs, non-ideal growth conditions are possibly responsible for these suboptimal performances.

Over the last couple of decades, there has been an intense research on strain balanced semiconductor quantum wells (QW) to increase the efficiency of multi-junction solar (MJ) solar cells grown monolithically on germanium. So far, the most successful application of QWs have required just to tailor a few tens of nanometers the absorption edge of a given subcell in order to reach the optimum spectral position. However, the demand for higher efficiency devices requiring 3, 4 or more junctions, represents a major difference in the challenges QWs must face: tailoring the absorption edge of a host material is not enough, but a complete new device, absorbing light in a different spectral region, must be designed. Among the most important issues to solve is the need for an optically thick structure to absorb enough light while keeping excellent carrier extraction using highly strained materials. Improvement of the growth techniques, smarter device designs - involving superlattices and shifted QWs, for example - or the use of quantum wires rather than QWs, have proven to be very effective steps towards high efficient MJ solar cells based on nanostructures in the last couple of years. But more is to be done to reach the target performances. This work discusses all these challenges, the limitations they represent and the different approaches that are being used to overcome them.

Multiple Quantum wells (MQWs) have been studied as one promising material for high-efficiency nextgeneration solar cells. However, a portion of photo-excited carriers recombine in MQWs, resulting in the degradation of cell performance. Super-lattice (SL) structures, where quantum states in neighboring quantum wells strongly couple with each other, have been proposed for the carrier collection improvement via the tunneling transport through mini-bands. Therefore, it is important to characterize mini-band formation in various types of SL structures. We examined p-i-n GaAs-based solar cells whose i layers contain 20 stacks of InGaAs/GaAsP MQW structures with 2.1-nm GaAsP barriers (thin-barrier cell), with 2.1-nm barriers and 3-nm GaAs interlayers in between GaAsP barriers and InGaAs wells (stepbarrier cell), and with 7.8-nm barriers (thick-barrier cell). We investigated the optical absorption spectra of the SL solar cells using piezoelectric photo-thermal (PPT) spectroscopy. In the thick-barrier cell, one exciton peak was observed near the absorption edge of MQWs. On the other hand, we confirmed a split of the exciton peak for the thin-barrier SL, suggesting the formation of mini-band. Moreover, in the step-barrier cell, the mini-band at the ground state disappears since thick GaAs interlayers isolate each quantum-well ground state and, instead, the mini-band formation of highenergy states could be observed. By estimating from the energy-level calculation, this is attributed to the mini-band formation of light-hole states. This can well explain the improvement of carrier collection efficiency (CCE) of the thinbarrier and the step-barrier cells compared with the thick-barrier cell.

III-V multi-junction solar cells are based on a triple-junction design that consists of an InGaP top junction, a GaAs middle junction, and a bottom junction that employs either a 1eV material grown on the GaAs substrate or InGaAs grown on the Ge substrate. The most promising 1 eV materials under extensive investigation are the bulk dilute nitride such as InGaAsN(Sb) lattice-matched to GaAs substrate and the dilute-bismide quantum well materials, such as GaAsBi, strain-compensated with GaAsP barriers. Both approaches have the potential to achieve high performance triple-junction solar cells. In addition, space satellite applications utilizing III-V triple-junction solar cells can have significantly reduced weight and high efficiency. An attractive approach to achieve these goals is to employ full-wafer epitaxial lift off (ELO) technology, which can eliminate the substrate weight and also enable multiple substrate re-usages. For the present study, we employed time-resolved photoluminescence (TR-PL) techniques to study carrier dynamics in MOVPE-grown bulk dilute bismide double heterostructures (DH). Carrier lifetime measurements are crucial to optimizing MOVPE materials growth. We have studied carrier dynamics in GaAsBi QW structures with GaAsP barriers. Carrier lifetimes were measured from GaAsBi DH samples at different stages of post-growth thermal annealing steps. Post-growth annealing yielded significant improvements in carrier lifetimes. Based on this study, single junction solar cells (SJSC) were grown and annealed under a variety of conditions and characterized. The SJSC annealed at 600 – 650 °C exhibited improved response in EQE spectra. In addition, we studied carrier dynamics in MOVPE-grown GaAs-In(Al)GaP DH samples grown on GaAs substrates. The structures were grown on top of a thin AlAs release layer, which allowed epitaxial layers grown on top of the AlAs layer to be removed from the substrate. The GaAs active layers had various doping densities and thicknesses. Our TR-PL results from both pre- and post-ELO processed GaAs-In(Al)GaP DH samples are reported.

Multiple quantum well (MQW) solar cells have been explored as one promising next-generation solar cells toward high conversion efficiency. However, the dynamics of photogenerated carriers in MQWs are complicated, making it difficult to predict the device performance. Our purpose of this study is to investigate a model for the photocurrent component characteristics of MQW cells based on experimental findings. Using our proposed carrier time-of-flight technique, we have found that the carrier averaged drift velocity has linear dependence on the internal field regardless of complicated carrier cascade dynamics in MQW. This behavior is similar to carriers in bulk materials, allowing us to approximate the MQW region as a quasi-bulk material with specific effective drift mobility. With the effective drift mobility and equivalent material parameters such as effective density of states, the quasi-bulk approach reduces the device complexity, and the characteristics of such MQW cells can be simulated using the conventional drift-diffusion model. We have confirmed this model with experimentally obtained photocurrent characteristics. The simulation of carrier collection efficiency (CCE)—normalized photocurrent—based on the effective mobility approximation, or quasibulk approximation, agrees well with the experimental results when the carrier lifetime is set to be in the order of hundred nanoseconds. This simplified model enhances our understanding of the MQW cell operation and helps design the optimal structure for better performance.

Insertion of InGaAs/GaAsP strain-balanced multiple quantum wells (MQWs) into i-regions of GaAs p-i-n solar cells show several advantages against GaAs bulk p-i-n solar cells. Particularly under high-concentration sunlight condition, enhancement of the open-circuit voltage with increasing concentration ratio in thin-barrier MQW cells has been reported to be more apparent than that in GaAs bulk cells. However, investigation of the MQW cell mechanisms in terms of I-V characteristics under high-concentration sunlight suffers from the increase in cell temperature and series resistance. In order to investigate the mechanism of the steep enhancement of open-circuit voltage in MQW cells under high-concentration sunlight without affected by temperature, the quasi-Fermi level splitting was evaluated by analyzing electroluminescence (EL) from a cell. Since a cell under current injection with a density J_injhas similar excess carrier density to a cell under concentrated sunlight with an equivalent short-circuit current J_sc = J_inj, EL measurement with varied J_inj can approximately evaluate a cell performance under a variety of concentration ratio. In addition to the evaluation of quasi-Fermi level splitting, the external luminescence efficiency was also investigated with the EL measurement. The MQW cells showed higher external luminescence efficiency than the GaAs reference cells especially under high-concentration condition. The results suggest that since the MQW region can trap and confine carriers, the localized excess carriers inside the cells make radiative recombination more dominant.

Type-II quantum dots (QDs) have attracted attention for the formation of multiband solar cells based on the intermediate-band (IB) concept. The type-II confinement potential causes a spatial separation between electrons and holes, which strongly suppresses the carrier recombination in the QDs. As a result, the carrier lifetime in the QDs increases, which results in an increase in the number of photocarriers in the QDs under continuous light irradiation. This enhanced carrier number in the IB has an advantage for efficient two-step photon absorption because the probability of the second optical excitation to extract carriers from the QDs depends on the number of photocarriers in the QDs. Thus far, type-II QDs, such as GaSb/GaAs and Ge/Si QDs, have been introduced to demonstrate the operation principle of IB solar cells. In narrow-bandgap semiconductors, however, the photocarriers are extracted from the QDs by thermal excitation, which causes reduced carrier lifetime even in type-II QDs, and inefficient two-step photon absorption. In this paper, the carrier dynamics in type-II InP QDs in the wide-bandgap InGaP host are investigated by using time-resolved optical spectroscopy. The photoluminescence spectra of the InP QDs exhibit a high-energy shift with increasing excitation power density, which is a typical behavior of type-II QDs. Time-resolved photoluminescence measurements show a longer carrier lifetime in type-II InP QDs compared to that in the well-known type-I InAs QDs. Temperature dependent photoluminescence of the photoluminescence indicates that type-II InP QDs in the InGaP host are a promising candidate for realizing IB solar cells.

Multi-stacked quantum dot solar cell (QDSC) is a promising candidate for intermediate band solar cell, which can exceed thermodynamic efficiency limit of single-junction solar cells. In recent years, lots of effort has been made to evaluate and understand the photo-carrier response of two-step photon absorption in QDSCs. One crucial issue is to suppress thermal excitation of photo-carriers out of QDs, which obscures the QD filling under quasi-equilibrium at operation conditions. We have investigated infrared photocurrent spectra of the QD states to conduction band (CB) transition by using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Multi-stacked In(Ga)As QDSCs with different barrier materials, such as GaAs, GaNAs, GaAsSb, and AlGaAs, were investigated. The IR absorption edge of the QD to CB transition was evaluated at low temperature by analyzing the low energy tail of the FTIR spectra. The threshold temperature of the two-step photon absorption in In(Ga)As QDSCs was determined by observing temperature dependence of the IR photo-response. A universal linear relationship between the threshold temperature and the IR absorption edge was obtained in In(Ga)As QDSCs with varied barrier materials. The threshold temperature of 295 K was predicted for the absorption edge at 0.459 eV by extrapolating the linear relationship. It reveals strategy for cell optimization to achieve efficient two-step photon absorption at ambient conditions.

A model, derived from the detailed balance model from Shockley and Queisser, has been adapted to monolithically grown GaAsP/Si tandem dual junction solar cells. In this architecture, due to the difference of lattice parameters between the silicon bottom cell – acting as the substrate – and the GaAsP top cell, threading dislocations (TDs) arise at the IIIV/ Si interface and propagate in the top cell. These TDs act as non-radiative recombination centers, degrading the performances of the tandem cell. Our model takes into account the impact of TDs by integrating the NTT model developed by Yamaguchi et. al.. Two surface geometries have been investigated: flat and ideally textured. Finally the model considers the luminescent coupling (LC) between the cells due to reemitted photons from the top cell cascading to the bottom cell. Without dislocations, LC allows a greater flexibility in the cell design by rebalancing the currents between the two cells when the top cell presents a higher short-circuit current. However we show that, as the TD density (TDD) increases, nonradiative recombinations take over radiative recombinations in the top cell and the LC is quenched. As a result, nonoptimized tandem cells with higher short-circuit current in the top cell experience a very fast degradation of efficiency for TDDs over 10⁴cm^-2. On the other hand optimized cells with matching currents only experience a small efficiency drop for TDDs up to 10⁵cm^-2. High TDD cells therefore need to be current-matched for optimal performances as the flexibility due to LC is lost.

Thermal emission from blackbodies and flat metallic surfaces is non-directional, following the Lambert cosine law. However, highly directional thermal emission could be useful for improving the efficiency of a broad range of different applications, including thermophotovoltaics, spectroscopy and infra-red light sources. This is particularly true if strong symmetry breaking could ensure emission only in one particular direction. In this work, we investigate the possibility of tailoring asymmetric thermal emission using structured metasurfaces. These are built from surface grating unit elements that support asymmetric localization of thermal surface plasmon polaritons. The angular dependence of emissivity is studied using a rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) of absorption, plus Kirchhoff’s law of thermal radiation. It is further validated using a direct thermal simulation of emission originating from the metal. Asymmetric angular selectivity with near-blackbody emissivity is demonstrated for different shallow blazed grating structures. We study the effect of changing the period, depth and shape of the grating unit cell on the direction angle, angular spread, and magnitude of coupled radiation mode. In particular, a periodic sawtooth structure with a period of 1.5λ and angle of 8°was shown to create significant asymmetry of at least a factor of 3. Such structures can be considered arbitrary directional sources that can be carefully patterned on metallic surfaces to yield thermal lenses with designed focal lengths, targeted to particular concentration ratios. The benefit of this approach is that it can enhance the view factor between thermal emitters and receivers, without restricting the area ratio or separation distance.

By means of nonequilibrium Green's functions using the Born approximation to treat the light-matter coupling, we numerically investigate impacts of competitive hybridization on the photocurrent of a quantum dot based optoelectronic device. The model of device is an absorbing quantum dot connected to two semiconducting electrodes through energy filtering quantum dots. Hybridization occurs between the absorber and the filter, via the inter-dot coupling β, and between the filter and the electrode, via the dot-lead coupling Γ. At the tunnel resonance between the absorber and the filter, the investigation reveals the existence of two operating regimes in the nanodevice characterized by opposite variations of the photocurrent depending on ratio β/ Γ.

This paper presents a comparison of the impact of the internal parasitic series resistance of a p-n junction, as seen from the microelectronics and photovoltaic communities. The elusive thermal behavior of the aforementioned resistance gave this work its origin. Each community uses a different approach to interpret the operational current-voltage behavior of a p-n junction, which might lead to confusion, since scientists and engineers of these two realms seldom interact. An improvement in the understanding of the different approaches will help one to better model the performance of devices based on p-n junctions and therefore it will favor the performance predictions of photovoltaic cells. For diodes, series resistance is usually determined from a specific forward-bias region of the I-V curve on a semi-logarithmic scale. However, in Photovoltaics this region is not commonly reported and therefore other methods to determine Rs are employed. We mathematically modeled an experimentally obtained I-V curve with various pairs of the ideality factor and Rs and found that more than one pair accurately synthesizes the measured curve. We can conclude that the reported series resistance not only depends on physical parameters, e.g. temperature or irradiance, but also on fitting parameters, i.e. the ideality factor. Generally the behavior of a p-n junction depends on its operating conditions and electrical modeling.

In this work, we present experimental results showing optical absorption enhancement of silicon wafer through etching and metal/metal-oxide nanolayers deposition. Black silicon nanograss were fabricated from single crystalline silicon by reactive ion etching, and ZnO, Pt, and CeO₂ nanolayers were deposited through atomic layer deposition as well as magnetron sputtering. The resulting structure exhibits less than 8% reflection over broadband solar spectrum. The fabricated structures are analyzed by scanning electron microscope, focused ion beam milling slice and view and transverse electron microscope sample preparation. The results are compared to finite difference time domain simulations based on the actual fabricated structures. A study of the influence of various parameters on the geometry of the fabricated micro and nanostructures and the corresponding change in optical properties is also presented. Applications of such highly absorbing metamaterials to solar photocatalysis is discussed.

We demonstrate absorption improvement in organic solar cells due to the incorporation of TiN nanopatterned back electrode. Organic solar cells (OSC) have already reached 10% power conversion efficiency (PCE), which made them comparable to commercial solar cells. Localizing light using plasmonic nanostructures has the potential to overcome OSC absorption limitations and thus further improve their PCE. Using a C-MOS compatible, cheap and abundant material for light trapping could facilitate the commercialization of OSC. This work theoretically shows that the replacement of Ag nanopatterned back electrode with TiN in plasmonic OSC gives enhanced performance. In addition, the incorporation of TiN nanoparticles inside the active layer has been studied and analyzed.

In this work, we performed a numerical analysis of the supercontinuum spectrum generation in a couple of photonic crystal fibers with different structure. The proposed configuration initially has an input pulse with hyperbolic secant profile to generate noise-like pulses as output signal, by the Runge-Kutta method (RK4IP). By using the same configuration, now these noise-like pulses are used as pump for supercontinuum generation obtaining a broad and good flatness spectrum. The numerical analysis presented here demonstrates the potential of noise-like pulses from a passively mode-locked fiber laser for broadband spectrum generation combining two different photonic crystal fibers. Besides this paper helps to understand the phenomena of supercontinuum generation which is mainly related to Raman self-frequency shift.

Incorporating nanostructures in thin film solar cells is an interesting way to improve the optoelectronic performance of the device by means of light-trapping and light management. However, designing the optimal shape and dimensions of the nanostructure is of critical importance for enhanced device performance. It is desired to have synergistic effects in the optical and electronic domains to result in a better performance. However in some nanostructures, the geometrically induced effects in these two domains might counteract resulting in a relatively inferior performance in the nano-structured device. We show this with a simulated example of a nanostructured organic solar cell with nano-pillar transparent electrodes. Here it is seen that the enhancement in photocurrent due to nano-scale scattering through the walls of the pillar is suppressed by the steady-state potential distribution induced by the nano-scale geometry. As a result of poor charge separation in the regions around the pillar, the photocurrents decrease. It is thus highlighted that the opto-electronic transport and electric field enhancement based co-degisn of nanostructures is important to fully understand the nano-scale effects.