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The reflectivity of 1D+2D PC back reflector in thin-film solar cell

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Abstract

A kind of back reflector is designed by the finite element method. It's composed of one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal (PC) and two-dimensional (2D) PC. The individual 1D PC is made of high and low refractive index materials in a pattern of alternative and periodical arrangement. The individual 2D PC is comprised of crystalline silicon with etched periodic air pore. By composite of 1D PC and 2D PC, a new back reflector is obtained in a full-wave band of 470–1100 nm. The reflectivity of the reflector has great improvement compared with traditional metal Al back reflector, and slight enhancement compared with Ag back reflector. A huge large advance is attained as compared with the 1D and 2D back reflectors on reflectivity. The reflectivity of the present 1D+2D back reflector is calculated to be 97.85%. It is larger than the ones of 68.23, 81.29, 83.75, 90.41, and 96.84% of 1D PC, 2D PC, 2D+1D PC, metal Al, Ag back reflectors, respectively, in the full-wave band. Otherwise, in the aspect of two narrow wavebands of 800–1100 and 470–800 nm, the present 2D PC back reflector solar cell has a better reflectivity of 99.32% in the longer waveband as compared with the previous reflectors. The reflector possesses 4-layer air pores and its single unit has triangle lattice with the lattice constant of 300 nm and duty cycle of 0.4. In the shorter narrow waveband, the present 1D PC back reflector with 4 periods has adapted reflectivity of 97.55%. Its reflectivity is greater than that of previous PC and metal Al, Ag back reflectors.

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Acknowledgements

The project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant no. 51231002).

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  1. School of Nuclear Science and Engineering, North China Electric Power University, Beijing, 102206, China

    Chenghao Zhan & Jun Cai

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  1. Chenghao Zhan
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Correspondence to Jun Cai.

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Zhan, C., Cai, J. The reflectivity of 1D+2D PC back reflector in thin-film solar cell. J Opt 52, 167–174 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12596-022-00884-2

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