Surface nanostructure optimization for GaAs solar cell application

• Main Authors: Hong, Lei, Rusli, Yu, Hongyu, Wang, Xincai, Wang, Hao, Zheng, Hongyu
• Other Authors: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/97137; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/11636
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Numerical simulation of optical absorption characteristics of gallium arsenide (GaAs) thin-film solar cells by the three-dimensional finite element method is presented, with emphasis on optimizing geometric parameters for nanowire and nanocone structures to maximize the ultimate photocurrent under AM1.5G illumination. The nanostructure-based GaAs thin-film solar cells have demonstrated a much higher photocurrent than the planar thin films owing to their much suppressed reflection and high light trapping capability. The nanowire structure achieves its highest ultimate photocurrent of 29.43 mA/cm2 with a periodicity (P) of 300 nm and a wire diameter of 180 nm. In contrast, the nanocone array structure offers the best performance with an ultimate photocurrent of 32.14 mA/cm2. The results obtained in this work provide useful guidelines for the design of high-efficiency nanostructure-based GaAs solar cells.