Enhanced Photoelectrical Response of Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Single-Nanowire Solar Cells by Front-Opening Crescent Design

Zhenhai Yang, Guoyang Cao, Aixue Shang, Dangyuan Lei, Cheng Zhang, Pingqi Gao, Jichun Ye, Xiaofeng Li

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report an approach for substantially enhancing the light-trapping and photoconversion efficiency of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) single-nanowire solar cells (SNSCs) by engineering the cross section of the nanowire from circular into a front-opening crescent shape. The proposed SNSCs show a broadband and highly tunable optical absorption compared to the conventional circular counterparts under both transverse electric and transverse magnetic incidences, enabling an enhancement ratio of over 40 % in both the photocurrent density and the photoconversion efficiency in a-Si:H SNSCs with a diameter of 200 nm. We further show that the superior performance can be well maintained under a wide range of incident angle and is robust to the blunt crescent edges.
Original languageEnglish
Article number233
JournalNanoscale Research Letters
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 2016

Keywords

  • Coupled optoelectronic simulation
  • Crescent
  • Light-trapping
  • Single-nanowire solar cells

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Materials Science
  • Condensed Matter Physics

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