Premium
Light Absorption Enhancement in Thin‐Film Solar Cells Using Whispering Gallery Modes in Dielectric Nanospheres
Author(s) -
Grandidier Jonathan,
Callahan Dennis M.,
Munday Jeremy N.,
Atwater Harry A.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201004393
Subject(s) - materials science , whispering gallery wave , dielectric , absorption (acoustics) , optoelectronics , thin film , wavelength , solar cell , optics , layer (electronics) , spheres , nanotechnology , composite material , resonator , physics , astronomy
Freely propagating sunlight can be diffractively coupled and transformed into several guided whispering gallery modes within an array of wavelength scale dielectric spheres. Incident optical power is then transferred to the thin‐film cell by leaky mode coupling into a thin solar cell absorber layer and significantly enhances its efficiency by increasing the fraction of incident light absorbed.