Open AccessEffective coupled optoelectrical design method for fully infiltrated semiconductor nanowires based hybrid solar cells
Author(s) -
Dan Wu,
Xiaohong Tang,
Kai Wang,
Xianqiang Li
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.24.0a1336
Subject(s) - materials science , semiconductor , optoelectronics , nanowire , active layer , exciton , absorption (acoustics) , photovoltaic system , acceptor , optics , layer (electronics) , nanotechnology , ecology , physics , quantum mechanics , condensed matter physics , composite material , biology , thin film transistor
We present a novel coupled design method that both optimizes light absorption and predicts electrical performance of fully infiltrated inorganic semiconductor nanowires (NWs) based hybrid solar cells (HSC). This method provides a thorough insight of hybrid photovoltaic process as a function of geometrical parameters of NWs. An active layer consisting of GaAs NWs as acceptor and poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) as donor were used as a design example. Absorption spectra features were studied by the evolution of the leaky modes and Fabry-Perot resonance with wavelength focusing firstly on the GaAs/air layer before extending to GaAs/P3HT hybrid active layer. The highest absorption efficiency reached 39% for the hybrid active layer of 2 μm thickness under AM 1.5G illumination. Combined with the optical absorption analysis, our method further codesigns the energy harvesting to predict electrical performance of HSC considering exciton dissociation efficiencies within both inorganic NWs and a polymeric shell of 20 nm thickness. The validity of the simulation model was also proved by the well agreement of the simulation results with the published experimental work indicating an effective guidance for future high performance HSC design.