Broadening of Light Coupling to Waveguide Modes in Solar Cells by Disordered Grating Textures

• Main Authors: Karsten Bittkau, André Hoffmann, Ulrich W. Paetzold, Reinhard Carius
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2017-07-01
• Series: Applied Sciences
• Subjects: Light trapping; thin-film solar cells; waveguide modes; optical simulation; FDTD; disordered gratings
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/7/7/725

We investigated the light coupling to waveguide modes in nanophotonic thin-film solar cells exhibiting a tailored disordered grating texture by rigorous optical simulations. Such disordered nanophotonic light trapping concepts have demonstrated enhanced short-circuit current density compared to ordered nanophotonic thin-film solar cells. This observation is commonly explained by a spectral broadening of the resonant light coupling to waveguide modes. In this work, we investigated the origin of this spectral broadening. We identified two basic mechanisms that lead to a spectral broadening of the light coupling to waveguide modes: (1) the broadening of the wave vector transferred by the disordered interface texture and (2) the broadening of the waveguide mode due to the distortion of the wave guiding absorber layer. Depending on the type of disorder, the contribution from each of the mechanisms varies.